Marseille down Lens to stay in touch with Ligue 1 leaders, Lyon draw

Marseille beat Lens 3-1 on Saturday to stay within touching distance of Ligue 1 table-toppers Paris Saint-Germain, while Lyon and Reims played out a 1-1 stalemate.

Second-half strikes from Valentin Rongier, Luis Henrique and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg ensured Marseille remain third, nine points behind PSG and three off Monaco in second spot.

After the top two both won on Friday, Marseille needed to get back to winning ways with their trip to Lens following their slump in form before the international break and anything other than a win would have meant they trailed PSG by at least 11 points.

Following a flying start to life under new coach Roberto De Zerbi, Marseille have been hit-and-miss in recent weeks, losing two of the their last five in the league.

These came in the form of a chastening 3-0 loss at home to arch-rivals PSG in October and then in the last matchday before the break, a surprise 3-1 home defeat to mid-table Auxerre.

De Zerbi dubbed Saturday’s win “a significant response in terms of (his side’s) character”.

“We managed to shake off that defeat to Auxerre, which really hurt us,” he added.

The Italian will be hoping his side further prove him right next week when they welcome second-placed Monaco to the Velodrome.

Lens looked the more threatening side in the first half with Marseille relying on goalkeeper Geronimo Rulli to keep the match goalless going into half-time.

However, it was the south-coast side that eventually made the breakthrough four minutes into the second period through Rongier.

Good centre-forward play by Neal Maupay set up the chance for the midfielder who supplied a cool finish one-on-one with the goalkeeper.

On 57 minutes, Luis Henrique doubled the visitors’ lead with a rolled finish from the right-hand