Europa League roundup: Marseille move top of Group B with win over AEK Athens
The first major chance came after 15 minutes and went Marseille’s way, ending a cagey opening to the game. The ball was worked out to Iliman Ndiaye on the right wing, who found an unmarked Vitinha 12 yards from goal, but the Portuguese forward completely mishit his shot.
Although the ball was subsequently only half cleared to Geoffrey Kondogbia on the edge of the area, his shot flew over the bar. From then on, the visitors took the initiative and broke the deadlock midway through the half, when Chancel Mbemba rose highest to head Jonathan Clauss’ outswinging corner past Giorgos Athanasiadis.
AEK initially struggled to produce a response - Mijat Gacinovic's booking for a dive inside the box was a low point - and Marseille continued to threaten, with Athanasiadis making a smart save to deny Mbemba.
Late in the half, Nordin Amrabat put a few teasing balls into the box, and Domagoj Vida went close with a header but, all in all, it was one of Marseille goalkeeper Pau Lopez’s quieter halves of the season thus far.
After the break, however, Lopez was a lot busier; first, he denied the Kitrinómavroi an equaliser with a world-class save to keep out Levi García’s header from six yards out, then got down low well to keep out a Gacinovic’s strike that was heading for the bottom corner.
On the hour mark, it was his AEK counterpart’s chance to shine, whose close-range effort as Athanasiadis expertly kept Vitinha’s close-range effort.
Vitinha clipped the outside of the post with 10 minutes remaining on what was a frustrating night for him personally, but after one more important stop from Lopez to keep out Steven Zuber’s looping header, Gennaro Gattuso’s men wrapped up the points on the counterattack in injury time via Ismaila Sarr’s tap-in - Les Phoceens move onto eight points from their four group stage matches.
Meanwhile, AEK’s H2H record versus French sides now stands at one win from 21 matches, and they now trail second-placed Brighton by three points.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Pau Lopez (Marseille)
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