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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

UCL: Marseille 2-0 Besiktas: French leave it late





































Marseille2 - 0Besiktas
76'Julien Rodriguez1 - 0
90'Djibril Cisse2 - 0

20



Second-half goals by Julien Rodriguez and Djibril Cisse gave Olympique Marseille a 2-0 win over Besiktas in their Champions League Group A opener on Tuesday.

Centre back Rodriguez poked the ball home in the 76th minute after a Samir Nasri corner kick hit the far post and France striker Cisse wrapped up the win in injury time to earn the Ligue 1 side their first home victory of the season.

Albert Emon's side dominated throughout and were barely bothered by a feeble Besiktas side.

Marseille, who won the Champions League in 1993, lead their group after five-times champions Liverpool were held to a 1-1 draw at Porto.

'We're feeling better. The Champions League is such an important competition,' Emon told reporters.

'We put our Ligue 1 problems behind us. This game is a boost for our confidence. The players have been strong from the first to the last minute.'

Besiktas coach Ertugrul Saglam added: 'We did not create enough chances and we lacked some luck. Marseille played roughly and the referee was not severe enough.'

Serdar Kurtulus and Ricardinho were both replaced in the first half with suspected injuries following rough tackles.

Marseille started brightly, with Senegal striker Mamadou Niang a permanent threat to the Besiktas defence, but proved too clumsy in front of goal.

Cisse had the clearest chance in the 11th minute but his attempt was blocked by Hakan Arikan.

The Besiktas goalkeeper pulled a superb save seven minutes into the second half when he tipped a Karim Ziani shot over his bar.

Marseille next travel to Anfield, where no French club has won, while Besiktas host Porto.

Source: Soccernet.com

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