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Under-pressure Toulouse Coach Erick Mombaerts can breathe a little easier after seeing his side record their first home win of the season with a heroic 1-0 triumph over Marseille on Wednesday.
Marseille Coach Jean Fernandez employed his now customary five-man defence away from the Stade Vélodrome despite the fact that Toulouse had not found the back of an opponent’s net since their 1-0 win over Sochaux on the opening day of the season.
Toulouse suffered from a considerable numerical disadvantage going forward but they could have opened the score as early as the third minute when Tunisian striker Santos failed to hit the target from a sumptuous Daniel Moriera cross.
Marseille began to impose their rhythm on proceedings with playmaker Franck Ribéry causing the TFC defence no-end of headaches with his sublime control and wicked turn of pace.
Yet despite dominating territory and possession Marseille’s defensive frailties returned to haunt them when former OM player Laurent Batlles’ 12th-minute corner was only half cleared by the defence. The ball was driven back in hard by Stéphane Lievre and flicked on by Julien Cardy into the path of an unmarked Bryan Bergougnoux who easily beat Marseille ‘keeper Cédric Carasso.
However things would soon look brighter for the visitors when the TFC’s central defender Dominique Arribagé was adjudged to have brought down Ribéry as the last defender. Mr Piccirillo has no hesitation in brandishing a red card despite the players protests of innocence and the home side were forced to play a man down for the remaining 70 minutes.
Mombaerts sacrificed the goalscorer Bergougnoux to bring in another defender in the form of Issou Dao, while his opposite number Fernandez took off Brazilian stopper André Luis and threw on Argentine striker Christian Gimenez, switching to a standard 4-4-2.
Marseille and the impressive Ribéry pushed for a equaliser but it was Toulouse that could have doubled their lead in first-half stoppage time when Cardy released Santos who beat Frédéric Déhu for pace, only to see his effort captured by an acrobatic Carasso.
The second half proposed more of the same with Marseille going closer and closer to scoring and becoming increasingly frustrated each time they failed to beat an inspired Christophe Revault in the Toulouse goal.
And when Revault was beaten the crossbar was on hand to deny Lorik Cana his first goal for his news side since quitting PSG last month after 48 minutes.
Marseille laid siege to the hosts’ goal and while the Toulouse defence cracked and wavered under the pressure it never broke. The one-sidedness of the second period is best illustrated by a look at the statistics. In 45 minutes of football Marseille had 22 shots at goal - one every two minutes – against two for the TFC.
The heroic win – only their second of the season – lifts Toulouse up to eight points, level with Marseille in 14th place.
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