MARSEILLE:
Both of Saturday’s Ligue 1 games finished goalless as fourth-placed Lille were unable to sink Marseille and Lens stuttered in Lorient.
After last Sunday’s violent scenes when Lyon coach Fabio Grosso suffered cuts to his face in an attack on his team’s coach, all eyes were on the Velodrome as Marseille welcomed Lille to the south coast in what produced a tetchy 0-0 draw.
Neither side managed to break the other down in a tense affair.
Thankfully there was calm outside the ground prior to kick-off when the Lille team bus arrived amid a heightened police presence.
However, this partly came at the expense of Lille supporters, who on Friday were banned from travelling south for the encounter by the French government.
Marseille fans in the stadium displayed a banner reading “Supporters (are not) Criminals” as two supporters suspected to be involved in the bus attack await trial.
With the whole stadium behind the hosts, Lille’s Yusuf Yazici nearly silenced the home support on 15 minutes with a stunning effort from just inside the Marseille half after spotting ‘keeper Pau Lopez off his line.
The floundering Lopez, utterly beaten by the strike, gathered the ball gratefully in his arms when it thuddded off the crossbar.
On the stroke of half-time, Amine Harit had a glorious chance to give the home side the lead but fluffed his lines with the goal at his mercy.
Neither side were able to break the deadlock in the second half either on an evening characterised by attacking errors and solid defence.
Marseille forced a couple of corners at the death but could not work the ball past Lucas Chevalier in goal as the match petered out without a goal.
“It was a good match. There weren’t many chances, it was balanced,” said Lille coach Paulo Fonseca.
“In the first half we were good and in the second we lacked the finishing touches. But we played a brave and ambitious game.”
Earlier on Saturday, Lens could only draw away to Lorient when a second consecutive victory would have sent them into sixth place.
As it stands the side who will face PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League next week, sit in eighth but have extended their unbeaten run to nine matches in all competitions after a shaky start to the season.
Marseille travel to Lens next Sunday, with the visitors looking to get back into the top half of the table after slipping to 10th spot.
