UCL: Marseille well-beaten by Liverpool
Marseille fell to a 3-0 defeat by Liverpool at the Vélodrome to cap-off a tough week for Ligue 1 McDonald's sides in the UEFA Champions League. Both sides played each other into a stalemate in the opening minutes: The most clear-cut chance early on was from Alexis Mac Allister, who was fed into the box by Ekitike but dragged his shot wide of the mark. It was the former PSG man that thought he opened the scoring for the Reds only minutes later, when Geoffrey Kondogbia lost the ball in midfield and Mohamed Salah was sent reeling down the right wing before sliding a ball across to Ekitike to finish. Yet VAR intervened quickly to rule the goal offside.
Les Olympiens found it hard to play out the back, a double pivot composed of Højbjerg and Kondogbia was finding it hard to break Liverpool's organised midfield off the ball. A tetchy and slow first period saw Les Marseillais go behind just before the half-time whistle. A needless foul on the edge of the box by Balerdi saw Liverpool given a freekick, and it was Szoboszlai who rolled home under the wall to open the scoring for the Reds (45 '+1).
Liverpool efficent in second half showing at Vélodrome
The second half saw Les Olympiens come out with attacking intent, and Mason Greenwood let off some shots from the edge of the box. But Liverpool found pockets of space to exploit and it saw a huge opportunity for Ekitike to double the away side's lead after some clever play with Wirtz - yet the Frenchman's strike would rattle Rulli's right post. OM immediately counter-attacked, and Greenwood found Hamad Traoré one-on-one but the Ivorian's strike was blasted over the crossbar. Rulli then had to be on his guard as he saved from Wirtz's low strike from the left of the box.
De Zerbi then decided to roll the dice with a triple change that introduced Paixao, Aubameyang and Nadir. But just as the extra injection of energy was starting to hit, Liverpool would double their lead. It was a multitude of errors, and a certain amount of passivity which saw Frimpong bear down into the box and to the byline. Igor Paixao tracks back but the Dutchman easily skipped away from the Brazilian, and rolls the ball to the back post: a contact off Rulli's heel diverts the ball into the back of the net (71').
THE STAT: Back to back loss for OM
Marseille have lost back-to-back home games in all competitions without scoring for the first time since March 2022 – before tonight they had averaged 2.5 goals per home match in the 2025-26 campaign (30 goals in 12 games).
READ MORE:
>>UCL: PSG beaten in Lisbon as Sporting strike late
