Olympique de Marseille

 1-1

 Valenciennes FC

 

Marseille may have extended their unbeaten Ligue 1 run to nine matches with the point obtained yet this was far from the result Didier Deschamps was looking for, even in the absence of hamstring victim Loïc Rémy. Young Jordan Ayew was given the nod at centre-forward ahead of Brandao, a scorer in each of his four starts in all competitions since his return from a loan spell in his native Brazil. Deschamps made a host of changes to allow some of his usual starters to rest ahead of Wednesday’s Champions League Round of 16 first leg tie at the Vélodrome against Inter Milan.

Diarra powers home

J. Ayew was off target with a header when presented with the game’s first chance. On 16 minutes OM did go in front as Rod Fanni supplied a brilliant cross from the right and midfielder Alou Diarra powered home a header after some fine movement which saw him escape the clutches of the visiting defence.

VAFC had taken something from each of their last three league meetings with OM and Daniel Sanchez’s side hung on doggedly, albeit with a little bit of luck as a deflected J. Ayew shot hit the crossbar on the half-hour. Straight after that let-off Charles Kaboré had to clear off the line at the other end from Renaud Cohade’s header.

Gil equaliser

Diarra went off injured at the break, to be replaced by Benoît Cheyrou, although he is expected to be OK to take on Inter. OM started the second period sluggishly and were made to pay six minutes into it as the home side failed to deal with a corner and Brazilian centre-half Gil equalized through a thicket of legs.

Brandao denied winner by post

Gaël Danic had a powerful shot turned around the post by Steve Mandanda and, with the run of play firmly against his men Deschamps decided to throw on man-of-the-moment Brandao for the final half-hour. It so nearly worked as the former Shakhtar Donetsk frontman headed a Kaboré cross against the post in the final minute with VAFC goalkeeper Nicolas Penneteau beaten all ends up.

OM climbed to provisional fourth place, ahead of Lyon and Rennes on goal difference. Both OL and Rennes are in action on Sunday. VAFC climbed into tenth position thanks to a valuable point.

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