Olympique de Marseille continued their fine form in Ligue 1 with a demolition of relegation-threatened Racing Club de Lens at the Stade de France.
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While Lens were thoroughly outclassed in the second period, they impressed defensively in the first and managed to hold the title contenders at bay.
Andre-Pierre Gignac delivered a muted first 45 minutes and was replaced at the break by Michy Batshuayi. The Belgian only took a handful of seconds to open the scoring, profiting from two mistakes from goalkeeper Rudy Riou to push Marcelo Bielsa’s side into the lead.
The game was over as a contest 20 minutes later. Dimiti Payet-having courted so much controversy this week-sent a terrific freekick slamming against the post before Togo international Alaixys Romao tapped-in the rebound.
As Lens wilted-the reality of relegation edging ever-closer-OM’s visiting fans celebrated as though they had won the title already.
Andre Ayew found the net five minutes after Romao had scored from close range before the Ghanaian was influential once again, beating several players before threading a through ball to Batshuayi for his second of the night.
The victory means that OM, on 57 points, move two behind leaders Paris Saint-Germain. Olympique Lyonnais, who were defeated by OGC Nice on Saturday, are sandwiched between the two on 58 points.
With eight games to play, the title race looks likely to go right down to the wire.