PARIS: Olympique de Marseille eased to a 3-0 win over beleaguered Olympique Lyonnais on Wednesday in a Ligue 1 game that was rescheduled from October after the away team bus was stoned on its approach to the Velodrome.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang set up Vitinha and Panama international Amir Murillo for first-half goals before the Gabonese striker added his team’s third on 55 minutes to seal a convincing victory.
Lyon appealed unsuccessfully last month to play the game on neutral ground and league officials took no action against Marseille as a club because the incidents did not occur inside the stadium.
No Lyon fans were allowed to attend the rearranged clash following a resurgence of football-related violence in France, the latest incident resulting in the death of a Nantes supporter at the weekend.
The original fixture on October 29 was called off just as it was supposed to kick off as then-Lyon coach Fabio Grosso was left with cuts to the face that required stitches after being hit by broken glass.
Lyon last week dismissed former World Cup winner Grosso after the Italian oversaw just one win in seven games, replacing him with the club’s academy director Pierre Sage.
The seven-time French champions have lost both matches under their interim coach and remain rooted to the foot of the table, six points from safety.
“You just need to look at the standings to know we’re in danger,” said Sage, the fourth man to take charge of Lyon this season.
Earlier on Wednesday, French league officials banned Lyon supporters from attending the club’s next away match after some made Nazi salutes and shouted monkey cries at the Marseille crowd the day of the postponed match. Three Lyon supporters were arrested and placed in custody in Marseille this week as part of an investigation by local authorities for “provoking racial hatred and racial insults.”
Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2023
