Do we have a title race on our hands? Although Paris Saint-Germain’s record-breaking 11th Ligue 1 title appeared to be a formality weeks ago, the league leaders’ poor spell of form – their latest setback, a home defeat to Lorient – has allowed Marseille to come back to within five points.
It wasn’t plain sailing for Les Phocéens on Sunday either, though, as late goals from Cengiz Ünder and Alexis Sánchez turned it around against Auxerre after Birama Touré’s incredible strike from range in the first half. The team’s trip up to third-place Lens – themselves potentially back in the title race too – will prove decisive, not least given PSG’s relatively straightforward final five games.
Despite the long odds, OM striker Alexis Sánchez is confident that his team can push the league leaders all the way. Speaking to Prime Video on Sunday evening, the former Barcelona and Arsenal man – who has 13 goals this season – insisted that he and his teammates were remaining hopeful:
“We’re five points away from PSG, it’s a source of motivation. And on a personal level too, I’m pleased to be so close to the league leaders. And we need to believe we can get the title, I believe we can do it. We need to have hope and stay united as a team.”
“We lost a lot of points against the run of play in previous games. We’re growing, we need to keep going, to keep improving to become an even more competitive team, both domestically and internationally. It was very important to win tonight before facing a direct rival. It’s a battle. We had to stay concentrated for 90 minutes, the important thing was to win, to make people happy.”
GFFN | Raphaël Jucobin
