Amine Gouiri the hero as Marseille grab late win over Auxerre in Ligue 1

[p]Both teams were starved of chances in the opening period, with only four shots on goal in total and none on target.[/p][p]The best of those did fall to heavy favourites [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/marseille/SblU3Hee/"]Marseille[/a], though, as [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/greenwood-mason/hxe108Jl/"]Mason Greenwood[/a] struck over from the edge of the box before [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/weah-timothy/4KWCbTaQ/"]Timothy Weah[/a] saw a promising effort blocked just before half time. [/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/auxerre/MTLr36WA/"]Auxerre[/a] offered very little in attack themselves, but at least showed enough resilience to force what was only the second scoreless first half in 19 Marseille matches.[/p][image alt="Match stats" id="78adb899-89f5-4c7d-b43f-d923414113f1" credit-line="Opta by StatsPerform" guid="44cb8666-6ae8-4df9-94d0-fd541727454b" original-width="1080" original-height="1080" /][p]It did not take long for Marseille to work [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/leon-donovan/63zhY82M/"]Donovan Leon[/a] in the second half, though, as the Auxerre goalkeeper made a terrific double save. [/p][p]The first was in response to a Greenwood effort from range, before latching onto the rebound from [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/hojbjerg-pierre-emile/ITwS8wMo/"]Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg[/a].[/p][p]The visitors had survived again, and just prior to the hour mark, [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/danois-kevin/GGj5ySgp/"]Kévin Danois[/a] had a chance to put them in front against the run of play, but he blasted over.[/p][p][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/paixao-igor/EuBBEVVq/"]Igor Paixao[/a] did the same from range down the other end a few minutes later, as Marseille were evidently becoming increasingly frustrated.[/p][p][b]However, their persistence paid dividends with just over 10 minutes of the 90 remaining, as substitute [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/gouiri-amine/K0zFVdU8/"]Amine Gouiri[/a] reacted fastest to a rebound in the area to stab the ball home.[/b][/p][embed guid="392dc368-ba07-44b2-ab66-8bc478fc477e" url="https://x.com/Ligue1_ENG/status/2032569038455406763" social-type="twitter" /][p]There was as much relief as joy around the Velodrome in that cathartic moment, and Auxerre had no answer as they slumped to a sixth defeat in 11 Ligue 1 games, with just one win to show for during their wretched run.[/p][p]Their luck truly ran out when [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/okoh-bryan/StKajGh6/"]Bryan Okoh[/a] thought he equalised late on, but his goal was disallowed for handball, keeping the visitors firmly in the relegation play-off spot, while boosting Marseille's prospects of a top-three finish.[/p][p][b]Flashscore Man of the Match: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/gouiri-amine/K0zFVdU8/"]Amine Gouiri[/a] ([a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/team/marseille/SblU3Hee/"]Olympique Marseille[/a])[/b][/p][p][b][a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/game/soccer/auxerre-MTLr36WA/marseille-SblU3Hee/?mid=ILQ832L8"]See all the stats from the match here[/a][/b][/p]