Bielsa praises Marseille heart

Marseille were unconvincing versus Guingamp, but Marcelo Bielsa felt the 2-1 win was another example of their mental toughness.

Marcelo Bielsa praised the heart of his Marseille side after they kept themselves within a point of Ligue 1 leaders Lyon with a 2-1 win over Guingamp on Sunday.

Having been put under pressure by defending champions Paris Saint-Germain’s 4-2 win over Evian, Marseille responded with a late show to stay second.

Two goals in the space of five minutes from Mario Lemina and Andre-Pierre Gignac put Marseille 2-0 to the good in the 89th minute.

Claudio Beauvue pulled one back for Guingamp from the penalty spot in injury time after he was brought down in the area by Rod Fanni for a foul that saw the Marseille defender sent off.

Despite the unconvincing nature of their victory, Bielsa felt Marseille’s 10th home win in a row was fully merited.

“We deserved the win, even though we didn’t play such great football,” Bielsa said. 

“But it’s a good result, given all the unforeseeable circumstances we had to contend with, which brought about the irregularity in our play.

“Things like [Romain] Alessandrini’s injury early on, which forced us to play Gignac on the right and [Florian] Thauvin on the left.

“But we created a lot of chances, enough to get the win, in any case. [Dimitri] Payet and Gignac performed well in attack and even though it was a tough match, we got through it.

“This team has heart. They’re courageous; we maintained a good attitude throughout, even though we weren’t always brilliant.”