Sanchez nets brace as Marseille see off Clermont on night of controversy
The game was delayed by roughly 50 minutes due to tear gas and flare smoke enveloping Stade Gabriel-Montpied after police had been forced to break up fights between the two sets of supporters outside the stadium.
Despite Igor Tudor’s men dominating the early exchanges, Clermont had a decent opportunity to open the scoring just before the 20-minute mark when Grejohn Kyei got past Samuel Gigot and had runners either side of him, but the striker delayed passing to 18-year-old Aiman Maurer and the chance evaporated.
L’OM goalkeeper Pau Lopez looked shaky in the first half and must have had his heart in his mouth when he caught birthday boy Mateusz Wieteska in the head after the Pole had nodded over the bar from close range.
However, the VAR team did not consider the incident worthy of a possible penalty.
Then, at the other end, referee Ruddy Buquet decided to award a spot-kick following a video review after Ruslan Malinovskyi’s free-kick had deflected off Muhammed Cham’s raised right arm, with Alexis Sanchez slotting home on 44 minutes for his eighth league goal of the campaign.
Tudor made a triple change at the break as Issa Kaboré, Eric Bailly and Chancel Mbemba replaced Matteo Guendouzi, Gigot and Leonardo Balerdi respectively.
Manchester City loanee Kabore wasted little time in making an impact, rattling the bar from distance before being caught by a wild challenge from Jim Allevinah, who was probably lucky to only be booked having left the ground with his studs up.
Lopez’s opposite number Mory Diaw did well to palm away Jordan Veretout’s curler after the former Aston Villa midfielder was found by Kabore’s incisive pass, while Sanchez gave the ball away in the home side’s box when he should have taken a shot.
The Chilean wasn’t to be denied a second though, bundling in at the back post after Diaw had tipped his initial header onto the crossbar.
Gastien made five second-half substitutions, including bringing on ex-Birmingham City winger Jeremie Bela, but the Lancers failed to strike any telling blows as they went a fourth game without scoring to remain 11th.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Alexis Sanchez (Marseille)
