Marseille survived a late surge from Slovan Liberec to earn a priceless 4-2 victory that sends them to the last 32 of the Europa League on Thursday.
Michel's side knew a win would see them progress from their group and roared into the lead through Michy Batshuayi, whose low shot in the 14th minute put his team in the driver's seat.
OM doubled their advantage through another perfect counter-attack when Abdelaziz Barrada played in Georges-Kevin N'Koudou beautifully for the latter to net.
Barrada was on fire and subsequently got on the scoresheet himself by chipping Tomas Koubek right after the break, capping off a commanding performance with a deserved goal.
Marseille must have thought the points were safe but Slovan roared back into contention during a devastating two-minute spell late on as Marek Bakos pulled one back from the penalty spot.
Josef Sural then rose highest to head in Dmitry Efremov's wonderful right-wing cross to produce a tense few final minutes, but Marseille ultimately held on to clinch a vital three points with Lucas Ocampos striking at the death.
T
he visitors had started the game in fine fashion and enjoyed the vast majority of possession from the off, with Barrada and Batshuayi looking dangerous inside the hosts’ half of the pitch.
After winning their last two games in a row, Marseille went into the clash in second place in Group F and with a good chance of making it to the knockout stage of the competition.
The Ligue 1 side only required one point to confirm their place in the next round but they started like they needed a win, with Barrada and Batshuayi finding plenty of joy inside the Liberec half of the pitch as they pushed forward on several determined attacking moves early on.
The hosts’ back four struggled to deal with the pressure from the dynamic duo and were made to pay after just 14 minutes when a poor pass from Zdenek Folprecht could only reach Barrada, who broke forward quickly before finding Batshuayi.
The young striker then skipped past his marker with ease before unleashing a rocket of a shot that comfortably beat Koubek.
The visitors continued to put the hosts under pressure, with Barrada constantly looking particularly bright as he dropped deep to pick up the ball in the space left by the marauding Liberec midfield.
The Moroccan was rewarded for his good efforts just before half-time when, once again, the hosts failed to deal with a Marseille attack and were punished as a result.
Again, it was Folprecht who was poor in possession and sent the ball to Barrada, who launched a lofted pass straight into the feet of N’Koudou, who charged forward and rounded Koubek before slotting the ball into the back of the net to double his side’s lead.
Desperate to find a way back into the game, Liberec started the second half on the front foot but immediately suffered another setback, with Manquillo’s lofted pass forward flying over the head of Ondrej Svejdik and into the path of Barrada, who added a goal to his two assists with a lovely volley that comfortably flew past Koubek.
Three goals down and with quarter-of-an-hour left to play it looked as if the game was done and dusted, but Liberec fought back valiantly and gave Marseille a late scare.
It all started with a penalty after a poor challenge from Nicolas N’Koulou left the referee with no choice but to point to the spot, and Bakos comfortably beat Steve Mandanda with a thumping strike down the middle of the goal.
Then, less than a minute later, Liberec grabbed their second thanks to good play by Dmitri Efremov, who found himself in space on the right wing and curled a great cross over to the far post, where substitute Sural rose high before sending a looping header past the outstretched arms of the Marseille goalkeeper.
The feel of the game completely changed in an instant, and from then onwards it was all Liberec as they desperately pushed forward in search of the two goals needed to send them into the knockout stage.
Ball after ball was flung into the penalty area as they tried to find the back of the net once again, but in the end it was Marseille who did.
Ocampos took advantage of sloppy defending by David Hovorka before beating Koubek with a cheeky chip with the last kick of the game, ending Liberec’s hopes of reaching the last 32.
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