Lille defeated Marseille to raise hopes for the Champions League

In a 3-1 victory over Marseille on Friday, Canadian sensation Jonathan David netted his 23rd goal of the year, putting Lille squarely on track to qualify for the Champions League the next season.

Lille took the lead early in the second half thanks to David’s penalty. After scoring a goal against his old team on minute seventy-one, Remy Cabella doubled their lead.

Emerick Pierre Aubameyang gave Marseille a late goal, but Gabriel Gudmundsson, a replacement, sealed Lille’s triumph.

The northern team advances to third in Ligue 1 ahead of the remaining games of the weekend, and they will play Aston Villa in their first-ever European quarterfinal in the Europa Conference League next week.

On goal differential, they are one point behind Brest in second place and ahead of Monaco in fourth, with six points separating them from Nice in fifth.

The top three teams in Ligue 1 will automatically advance to the expanded Champions League for the next season, while the fourth-place team will play in the preliminary rounds of Europe’s premier club competition.

Marseille is now ranked seventh, which could be sufficient to make it into Europe the next season, depending on the outcome of the French Cup. However, with six games remaining, they are a massive 10 points outside of the top four.

OM has dropped their last four games across all competitions. They take on Benfica in Portugal in the first leg of their Europa League quarterfinal next week.

Before then, they had won five straight games after Jean-Louis Gasset was named their third coach of the year.

Lille was looking to build on an amazing home record that dates back to August 2022 and saw them win just one of their previous 37 games at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy.

Nine minutes into the second half, David gave them the lead with a penalty kick after Samuel Gigot had fouled him in the box.

With 24 goals for Paris Saint-Germain, only Kylian Mbappe has scored more than him, with 16 of his goals coming from Ligue 1.

After Cabella’s beautiful shot put Paulo Fonseca’s club ahead 2-0, Aubameyang gave Marseille a chance when he appeared to get the last touch after Lille’s defense mishandled clearing their lines.

Soon after, in the eighty-fourth minute, Gudmundsson scored Lille’s third goal as they got ready for their trip to Villa Park on Thursday.

On Sunday, Brest will play the struggling Metz, while Monaco will host Rennes and Nice will go to Reims later in the day.

On Saturday, PSG, the leaders, will host Clermont, the bottom team.

AFP