Marseille won at Leverkusen on fewer shots and better chances

Gouiri's 77th-minute goal gave Marseille a 1-0 win at BayArena, while Leverkusen's attack fell well short of its usual level.

Leverkusen took nine shots at the BayArena on Thursday, against a season average of 23.7 at home. Marseille still won 1-0, and the reason lies less in who had the ball than in whose chances were better. Amine Gouiri scored the only goal in the 77th minute, and it was the Marseille side's better quality in front of goal that decided the evening.

Leverkusen had 58% of possession, close to their usual share, so the ball was not the problem. Expected goals, a figure that gives each shot a value between 0 and 1 by how likely it was to go in, put their home attack at 0.91, far below the 3.36 they normally manage in a match at home. Most of those efforts came from inside the box, which makes the low total more striking, because the chances they did create were not the sort that test a goalkeeper.

Marseille had the reverse problem. They had 42% of the ball, below the 57.3 they usually hold on the road, and they took eight shots against their usual twelve. Yet their expected goals reached 0.94, above their 0.69 average away from home, so the chances they did get were of better quality than normal. Even so, eight shots sits under the league average of 13.7 per side, so this was not a high-volume evening for either attack.

Gouiri had three shots, two of them on target, and he was rated 7.8, the highest mark of any player in the match. His goal was the only one, and it came from a side that had found the net only once in its first three matches. Marseille arrived with three defeats from three and six goals conceded, which makes the clean sheet they kept here notable, since their away average is two goals conceded per match.

Leverkusen had conceded nothing in the three matches before this one, so this was the first goal they had let in during the campaign. Some of the match was ordinary on both counts. Both sides completed close to nine in ten of their passes, so neither was careless on the ball, and the midfield contest was tight. Marseille were the more heavily booked side, with three yellow cards to Leverkusen's one.

Leverkusen stay third in the table with nine points from three matches, and their home record is still unbeaten. Marseille move onto three points from four matches, their first points in this table.

Player of the matchA. Gouiri1 goal7.8

C. Egan-Riley1 chance created7.2

Aleix García3 chances created7.2

P. Højbjerg1 chance created7.2