Zürich vs. Marseille

The visitors had the ball in the back of the net as early as the third minute when Cheyrou’s freekick from 20 yards out was spilled by Leoni and Brandao bundled the rebound over the line, but the whistle had already gone after two players were adjudged to have been offside when the delivery came in. The French side continued to dominate possession but the hosts gradually got into the game after 22 minutes when Gajic’s left-footed drive flew well wide of Mandanda’s right post.

The best chance for the visitors, however, arrived three minutes before the break when Niang did all the hard work to beat his man out on the right before drilling in a cross for Brandoa, who sidefooted the ball goal-bound from point-blank range but Leoni pulled off a superb one-handed reflex save to keep it out.

But Zurich came out firing in the second half and just a minute into the restart, Volanthen arrowed in a curling right foot shot on the edge of the box which Mandanda did brilliantly to palm it over the bar.

However the deadlock was broken on 68 minutes by the visitors when Lucho hooked in a deep cross from the right and an unmarked Gabriel Heinze side-footed a clinical volley at the far post past Leoni.

Zurich nearly equalize immediately when Gajic’s freekick from a long way out caught Mandanda off-guard and the shot-stopper had to push the ball away on the bounce while Aegerter flashed infront of him and missed a header by inches.

Mandanda had to show a safe pair of hands towards the tail-end of the game as the Swiss side bombarded his goal with countless crosses and high balls. Tihinen did beat him in the air in the 85th minute but the captain sent his header wide.

Bernard Challandes’ men ended the game strongly as they dominated their opponents but Didier Deschamps’ side held on for their first win and their first points of this season’s Champions League, even though Bonnart was sent off late in the game.