Groningen’s first Europa league group stage match ended in a heavy defeat to Marseille. The French side triumphed 3-0 in the Euroborg.
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Edwin van de Looi named the same side that saw off Heerenveen at the weekend, but Marseille decided to make a number of changes to their side, leaving out the likes of Lassana Diarra and Nicolas N’koulou, while Mats Batshuayi was left on the bench.
However the changes did little to weaken the French giants and Marseille took the lead after 25 minutes, with winger Georges-Kévin N’Koudou racing through the Groningen defence before calmly slotting the ball past Sergio Padt.
Before the break it was 2-0 after a blunder in the Groningen defence allowed Lucas Ocampos to be played through on goal, and after beating Padt the Argentinian made no mistake with his finish.
After the break Groningen came into the game more and they nearly halved the deficit, but after Danny Hoesen cushioned the ball down in the box, Michael de Leeuw could only lash the ball just wide.
Marseille made it 3-0 just after the hour mark when Benjamin Mendy played the ball back for Romain Alessandrini, who was left completely free to fire past Padt.
De Leeuw and Mimoun Mahi both fired good chances over the bar as Groningen failed to find a consolation and Marseille comfortably played out the rest of the game.
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