Andre and Jordan Ayew scored either side of the interval to revive Olympique de Marseille’s Ligue 1 campaign with a 2-1 win against Stade Malherbe Caen on Friday.
The result lifted Marseille up to seventh in the table with 24 points from 16 games, nine adrift of leaders Montpellier Herault.
Caen stayed 10th on 19 points.
Didier Deschamps’ side, who thrashed rivals Paris Saint--Germain 3-0 on Sunday last week, followed up with a fine performance from the Ayew brothers, although Stephane Mbia was injured four days before their decisive Champions League trip to Borussia Dortmund.
Marseille went ahead on 21 minutes when Morgan Amalfitano’s shot at the near post was parried by Alexis Thebaux into the path of Andre Ayew, who poked the ball into the empty goal.
It took Caen only two minutes to equalize as Pierre-Alain Frau converted a penalty following a foul by goalkeeper Steve Mandanda on Livio Nabab.
Jordan Ayew made it two for the visitors seven minutes into the second half when he latched onto a Souleymane Diawara cross to slot the ball past Thebaux.
Cameroon midfielder Mbia went off with an ankle injury shortly before the hour and it was unclear if he would be fit for Tuesday.
He was replaced by Benoit Cheyrou, who helped the visitors keep the ball and preserve Marseille’s slim advantage.
Striker Andre-Pierre Gignac came on as a 77th-minute substitute for Jordan Ayew, but failed to make much of an impact.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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