Paris: Dimitri Payet scored twice as 10-man Marseille beat rivals Lyon 2-1 on Sunday in a bad-tempered derby, which was overshadowed by the behaviour of a record home crowd.
The build-up to the game was focused on former Marseille boss Rudi Garcia’s return to the Stade Velodrome after his controversial decision to join Lyon as coach, but it is more likely to be remembered for ugly scenes off the pitch.
Home supporters attacked the Lyon bus with stones, bottles and other projectiles on its way to the stadium, before visiting players were repeatedly bombarded with objects thrown from the crowd while taking corners during the match.
Payet netted a first-half double as Marseille moved second in the Ligue 1 table, eight points adrift of Paris St-Germain.
The Lyon team coach was left with two shattered windows by the pre-game ambush, with club president Jean-Michel Aulas threatening to pull his team out of the match if anything else happened.
“We were bombarded with stones, bottles and other projectiles. It’s a disgrace, it’s just sick,” regional newspaper La Provence reported an unidentified passenger of the bus saying.
The match was also suspended for two minutes in the second half due to thick smoke billowing around the pitch, coming from pyrotechnics by the record Marseille crowd of 65,421.
