Olympique de Marseille humbled newly promoted En Avant de Guingamp 3-1 in Ligue 1 on Sunday, with new signing Dimitri Payet scoring twice on his debut.
It was a dismal return to the top flight for Guingamp, who finished runners-up to AS Monaco in Ligue 2 last season, as they found themselves 3-0 down after a quarter of an hour following several defensive mistakes.
Andre-Pierre Gignac scored an early opener for Marseille, before a swift brace for Payet, who was signed from Ligue 1 rivals LOSC Lille Metropole in the off-season.
Photo: AFP
Guingamp had a chance to get back into the game early in the second half, but Mustapha Yatabare saw his penalty saved after Souleymane Diawara was harshly adjudged to have fouled Steeven Langil.
However, Marseille were eventually made to pay for their frailty in defense — which will be of concern to coach Elie Baup — when Yatabare scored in the 74th minute.
Earlier on Sunday, AS Saint-Etienne strolled to a 1-0 win at AC Ajaccio as Fabrizio Ravanelli’s first match in charge of the Corsican side ended in disappointment.
Photo: AFP
“We did very well in the first half, we could have even scored a fourth or a fifth goal,” Baup said. “Then it became more difficult and we left a lot of open spaces for our opponents. There are a lot of things to correct, but it’s good to have started by scoring three goals.”
“It’s normal, it’s only the first match, there’s a lot of work to be done, but I saw good things in our attacking approach and the way we kept the ball. There’s quite a few things to correct in defense, but everything’s going well. As long as there are goals, it’s good. We had chances, goals. Everyone’s finding their feet again,” he said.
Marseille, who finished runners-up to Paris Saint-Germain last season, got off to a perfect start when they was gifted the lead in the second minute.
Andre Ayew’s shot was parried by Guingamp goalkeeper Mamadou Samassa, but it went straight to the feet of Gignac, who drilled the ball into the empty net.
The visitors doubled their lead less than two minute later, with Payet slotting into the bottom-left corner after Guingamp midfielder Christophe Kerbrat failed to deal with Ayew’s cross.
Payet grabbed his second of the game in the 16th minute. Benjamin Mendy’s cross eluded everyone and went out to Mathieu Valbuena on the far right of the penalty area. Samassa parried his shot, but the defense failed to clear the ball and Payet bundled it in.
Guingamp — who are back in the top flight after a nine-year absence — had the ball in the back of the net shortly before halftime, but Langil’s header was ruled out for offside.
However, the hosts had started to pose more of a threat and they were awarded a penalty in the 53rd minute, but Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda dived smartly to his right to keep out Yatabare’s spot-kick.
Marseille were looking vulnerable at the back and another mistake allowed Guingamp to score. Reynald Lemaitre dispossessed Nicolas N’Koulou on the edge of the area and crossed for Yatabare — the top scorer in the second tier last year — to tap home.
In Corsica, both Saint-Etienne and Ajaccio struggled to carve out opportunities in searing heat.
The match was halted at the midway point in each half to allow players to rehydrate.
Brandao scored in the 34th minute after Romain Hamouma rolled the ball across the face of goal from the right flank and the Brazilian striker slotted into an empty net.
Ajaccio midfielder Benjamin Andre was sent off in stoppage-time for a second booking.
It was only the second time Saint-Etienne have won their opening league match of the season since 1992. It was also the first time they have won at Ajaccio in 33 years.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier