Sanchez double lifts Marseille closer to Ligue 1 leaders

A double from veteran Alexis Sanchez earned Olympique de Marseille a 2-0 Ligue 1 win at Clermont on Saturday in a match delayed after police fired teargas at fighting supporters which swept across the Gabriel Montpied Stadium.

The victory moved Marseille back up to second place on 49 points, two more than Monaco who had beaten leaders Paris St Germain, who have 54, 3-1 earlier on Saturday. Clermont remained 11th with 30 points.

Kickoff was delayed by an hour after police fired teargas in an effort to separate fighting supporters, causing the teams to leave the field during the pre-match warmup as the gas blew across the pitch and into the stands, impacting supporters too.

Clermont’s Grejohn Kyei netted after 23 minutes but was found to be offside after a VAR check before a similar intervention saw Marseille awarded a penalty on the stroke of halftime.

Another review found Muhammed Cham had blocked Ruslan Malinovskyi's free kick with his arm and Sanchez stepped up to score from the spot.

The 34-year-old Chile international added a second nine minutes from time as he followed up on his own header that had been tipped onto the crossbar by a diving save from Clermont keeper Mory Diaw. Sanchez was quickest to react to the rebound and his followup effort crept over the line.

(Writing by Mark Gleeson in Cape Town; Editing by Toby Davis)