Saturday 30 July 2011

Marseille Beat Lille In Morocco

Marseille produced a stunning fightback to claim the Trophy des Champions with a 5-4 victory over Lille in Tangiers on Wednesday night.

The cup winners trailed 3-1 in Morocco with five minutes to go but stormed back to win it 5-4 in normal time and exact a modicum of revenge on the side who beat them to the Ligue 1 trophy a few months ago.

The champions have lost Adil Rami, Yohan Cabaye and Gervinho this summer but looked themselves on Wednesday evening with their three new faces all present in Tangiers.

Of the newcomers, more is expected from Dimitri Payet, from St Etienne, and he did not disappoint tonight.

Eden Hazard provided the opener after eight minutes with a well taken effort and was heavily involved in the second goal soon after the restart.

He did well to capitalize on an error by Souleymane Diawara before coolly slotting the ball through Steve Mandanda's legs shortly before the hour mark.

Marseille pulled one back as Andre Ayew scored 19 minutes from time but it seemed the game was over as a contest when last season's leading goalscorer Moussa Sow made it 3-1. Ludovic Obraniak was integral to the goal as he came off the bench to set up Sow.

Then things started going wrong, however, as Lille relaxed.

Jeremy Morel struck five minutes from time and two minutes later it was level as Loic Remy scored a goal of typical cold-blooded finishing.

Lille were rocked and the panic continued to gift the trophy to Marseille as Ayew scored two penalties, in the 90th and 94th minutes, to complete a superb hat-trick and leave Lille - for whom Marko Basa scored between Ayew's spot-kicks - dazed, confused and defeated.

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