Olympique de Marseille moved back up to second spot in Ligue 1 after coming from behind to win 4-2 at St Etienne with Dimitri Payet, a Timothee Kolodziejczak own goal, Bamba Dieng and Amine Harit ensuring a second-half goal blitz on Sunday.
Marseille, who are nine points adrift of Paris St-Germain before the leaders host Lorient later on Sunday, were originally scheduled to play St Etienne on Saturday but heavy snowfall forced the postponement of the match.
“It’s an important victory, but we’ll have to fight until the end,” said OM coach Jorge Sampaoli, whose side host Greek club PAOK in their Europa Conference League quarter-final, first leg on Thursday.
“We mustn’t let up and we’ll have to perform well when it’s more difficult. I think we are ready to play on both fronts. The team is showing a lot of enthusiasm to achieve the goals, both in the league and on the European stage.”
The visitors started brightly but had only themselves to blame for going behind, after poor defending from Sead Kolasinac and a howler from goalkeeper Pau Lopez gifted St Etienne their opener against the run of play.
Kolasinac’s headed back pass was directed into the path of St Etienne forward Bouanga, whose tame effort from a tight angle squirmed through Lopez’s legs in the ninth minute.
St Etienne looked like they would take their lead into halftime until Eliaquim Mangala brought down Marseille’s Duje Caleta-Car in the box just before the break and, after a visit to the pitch-side monitor, the referee awarded a penalty.
Payet, who was pelted with snowballs by home fans when taking corners, stepped up and calmly slotted the spot kick down the middle for his 10th league goal of the season.
Marseille carried their momentum into the second half and were rewarded on the hour when St Etienne’s off-balance Kolodziejczak misdirected a clearance into his own net to give the away side the lead.
St Etienne’s Arnaud Norin then brought down Gerson for a second Marseille penalty, which was converted at the second time of asking by Dieng, before Harit capped a well-worked break with a tidy finish for their fourth.
Lucas Gourna-Douath got a second goal for St Etienne in the 86th minute but it was too late for a comeback as the visitors enjoyed a third straight league victory to leave St Etienne in 18th spot with 27 points, a point from the safety zone.
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