Gouiri needs 46 seconds of the second half, and Marseille turn an even night into a rout

For 45 minutes the Vélodrome watched a season opener that refused to open. Marseille had the ball and the territory, Strasbourg had a low block and no obvious way out of it, and the half ended 0-0 without either goalkeeper being seriously worked.

The second half needed less than a minute. Amine Gouiri finished at 46', and from there the game stopped being a contest.

Gouiri twice, then the red card, then the pile-on

Gouiri's second came from the penalty spot on 68 minutes. By then Strasbourg were already a man short: Samir El Mourabet had gone off after a VAR review on 59 minutes, and a side that had spent the first half defending in numbers now had one fewer body to do it with.

The last ten minutes were the scoreline being written properly. Keyliane Abdallah got his first goal for the club at 89', and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg volleyed the fourth deep into stoppage time, at 90+6'.

The numbers say what the eye did. Marseille finished with 67% of the ball, 623 accurate passes at 91%, 14 shots and 8 on target against Strasbourg's five and two. The 1.89 expected goals is not a huge figure — it is a fair one for a team that scored four times from a small number of very good chances.

Match facts

• 46' — Amine Gouiri (Marseille)
• 59' — Samir El Mourabet (Strasbourg) sent off after a VAR review
• 68' — Amine Gouiri (Marseille), penalty
• 89' — Keyliane Abdallah (Marseille)
• 90+6' — Pierre-Emile Højbjerg (Marseille)

What's next

Marseille go to Monaco at the Stade Louis II on Sunday 30 August — a considerably better read on where this side actually is than a home game against a Strasbourg team that spent half an hour with ten men. Strasbourg host Lens at the Meinau on Saturday 29 August, needing a first point and a first goal of the season.

One night, two different trajectories

The scoreline did not turn into a trend. Marseille lost at Monaco a week later as expected, then kept losing: 2-3 at home to Paris FC, 0-1 away at Rennes, 1-2 at home to Paris Saint-Germain. Four defeats in the four matchdays that followed turned the 4-0 evening into the exception rather than the rule. By matchday 5, Marseille have one win in five league games, 7 goals scored and 8 conceded, and sit 17th in the table — inside the automatic relegation zone, with only bottom club Le Havre below them. The team that scored four without reply on the opening weekend has not managed more than two in a single match since.

Strasbourg's next month went the other way. Two weeks after conceding four at the Vélodrome, they beat Lens 2-1 at the Meinau, thrashed Troyes 6-2 away, drew 1-1 at home with league leaders Monaco, and lost 1-2 away to Paris FC. Two wins, a draw and a defeat across those four matchdays are worth 7 points and 8th place in the table — comfortably the better recovery of the two sides that shared the pitch on matchday 1, and a long way from the ten-man collapse this same fixture had them in.