Marseille scored inside a minute, then let Toulouse have the ball

Marseille won 2-0 at home after two early goals, despite having less of the ball and fewer chances than usual.

Amine Harit struck in the first minute of the match, and Amine Gouiri doubled the lead on 25 minutes. Marseille were two goals up before half an hour had gone, and the rest of the evening was spent with Toulouse chasing the game. What makes the result unusual is how little of the play Marseille had.

Marseille had 43 per cent of the ball, well below their usual share at home. Toulouse, at 57 per cent, had more of the ball than they normally do away from home. Possession is simply the share of time a side spends with the ball at its feet, and a side with less of it is usually the one sitting back and waiting for its moment.

Chances tell a clearer story. Expected goals, or xG, is a way of adding up how good each shot was, based on where it was taken and how it was struck, so that a total near 1 suggests roughly one goal's worth of chances. Marseille's total was 1.12, under the 1.55 they usually manage at home. Toulouse's 1.6 was close to their away norm, and they took 14 shots, seven of them on target.

Toulouse scored none of those chances. Their away average is around 1.5 goals a game, and the match ended with them empty-handed, partly because VAR ruled out a goal from Casper Tengstedt in the 68th minute. Their finishing, in other words, was far below the quality of what they created. Marseille's finishing ran the other way, with two goals from a smaller pile of chances.

Marseille's defence did the rest. Their goalkeeper, J. de Lange, made six saves and was rated 7.6, and the home side conceded nothing, where they usually let in around 1.6 a game at home. Harit and Gouiri were the danger men, and Gouiri, rated 8.6, was the standout: a goal, an assist, and three shots, which is the sort of return that settles a match.

The score was also low for this league. The division averages 3.1 goals a match, and this game produced two, so it was a quieter night than most. In the table, Marseille are ninth on 12 points from eight games, and Toulouse are 11th on 10 points from the same number of matches.

Marseille now have a clean sheet and three points more than Toulouse, who have lost their earlier edge in front of goal. The table will show whether those early goals were enough to lift them.

Player of the matchA. Gouiri1 goal · 1 assist8.6

A. Harit1 goal8.2

J. de Lange6 saves7.6

Igor Paixão1 assist7.3