Marseille vs Lyon. French Ligue 1.
8:00pm, Sunday 4th May 2014.
Andre-Pierre Gignac bagged a brace as Marseille kept their Europa League hopes alive with a 4-2 victory over Lyon.
Andre-Pierre Gignac bagged a brace as Marseille kept their Europa League hopes alive with a 4-2 victory over Lyon in 'The Olympico' at the Stade Velodrome. The hosts raced into a two-goal lead inside half an hour, courtesy of Souleymane Diawara and Florian Thauvin, before Arnold Mvuemba pulled one back before half time. After the break Marseille turned the screw as Gignac took his tally to 16 for the season before Bafetimbi Gomis notched a second consolation for the visitors. The victory puts Marseille two points beyond Lyon, who currently occupy the final Europa League berth, with two games to go. Diawara opened the scoring after 14 minutes, nodding past Lyon goalkeeper Anthony Lopes after Dimitri Payet crossed a free-kick from deep into the box. The hosts doubled their advantage 12 minutes later as Thauvin met Jeremy Morel's cross with a lobbed header to beat Lopes. Henri Bedimo capitalised on poor defending from Diawara to put Mvuemba in on goal and the midfielder made no mistakes, lashing home into the top corner past Steve Mandanda. Payet forced a smart save out of Lopes with a low volleyed effort in the 43rd minute, but it remained 2-1 at the interval. Gignac restored Marseille's two-goal advantage before the hour-mark, racing clear and smashing home in the 48th minute, before prodding home on the rebound after Lopes parried an effort from Thauvin eight minutes later. Mvuemba almost added his second with a well-struck free-kick from just outside the box, but Mandanda was happy to see it go over the bar. There was no such relief for the Marseille goalkeeper in the closing stages though as Gomis notched his 17th goal of the season by sending the ball through Mandanda's legs at the near post.