Keyliane Abdallah came off the bench to score an 82nd-minute winner as Marseille beat Lens 2-1 at the Stade Bollaert-Delelis on Sunday night, Amine Gouiri's second-minute opener and Florian Thauvin's equaliser setting up a dramatic Ligue 1 finish that lifts Marseille into fourth place going into the international break.
It took Marseille just two minutes to punish a Lens side still scarred by their midweek humiliation. Jonathan Gradit's backpass was picked off by Amine Gouiri, who finished simply to silence a home crowd that had arrived with a banner telling their own players they were a disgrace to 120 years of history after the 9-1 Champions League defeat by Como on the same pitch.
Lens, to their credit, refused to fold. Florian Sotoca dug out a cross on 20 minutes and captain Florian Thauvin headed home the equaliser, and for a spell the hosts looked the more likely winners of a frantic first half.
Gouiri Torments Lens Before Abdallah Strikes
Gouiri remained Marseille's biggest threat throughout. The Algerian forward slipped between the defenders to poke a shot onto the crossbar, while Amine Harit tested Robin Risser at the other end of a breathless opening period. Lens had their own opening when Igor Paixao gave the ball away close to his own goal, only for Yacine Titraoui to shoot straight at Jeffrey de Lange.
The intensity dropped after the break, and the game appeared to be drifting towards a draw when Thauvin went down in the box on 76 minutes to huge penalty appeals — waved away, with the Lens captain judged to have fouled Tochukwu Nnadi in the incident, as detailed in the Get French Football News ratings report.
The decisive moment came from the Marseille bench. Abdallah, introduced on 77 minutes, was in the right place five minutes later when Gouiri's scuffed effort ran loose in the box, and the winger fired home to settle it, as Benin Web TV also reported. Marseille finished with 59 per cent of the possession and 16 shots to Lens's 13, and just about earned the late winner their second-half patience produced.
It completes a superb week for Gouiri, who was also Marseille's match-winner in Europe — read how Gouiri stunned Leverkusen in the Europa League on this site.
So What It Means for Ligue 1
The win sends Marseille into fourth place ahead of the international break, keeping them firmly in the chase behind the leaders — a race Lille also kept alive earlier on Sunday, as our report on Lille's 2-1 win at Rennes explains. For Lens, an 11th-place finish to the weekend and a second home defeat in a week deepens a crisis that began with that Como catastrophe: the fans' banner made clear that patience at Bollaert-Delelis is already wearing thin, and a response is demanded the moment the league resumes.
Beyond the Final Whistle
Beyond the Final Whistle: This is what a winning habit looks like. Marseille were not at their fluent best for long stretches in Lens, but they stayed in the game, trusted their bench and let their form player create the decisive moment — Gouiri had a hand in both goals on a night when one moment of quality was always likely to settle it. Lens played with pride after a humiliating week, yet pride without points changes nothing, and a team that gifts goals in the second minute and concedes winners in the 82nd cannot keep calling it bad luck.
Can Marseille turn this run into a genuine title push after the break — or will the top three pull away again? Have your say in the comments.
