PARIS: Marseille new signing Vitinha scored his first ever Ligue 1 goals in Sunday’s 3-1 win over Troyes that lifted the south coast club into second behind Paris Saint-Germain.

The 23-year-old Portuguese was on the mark for the first time in the league since a 32 million euros move from Braga in January, as the goalmouth predator began to deliver for his new owners.

For relegation-threatened Troyes this was a 14th Ligue 1 match without a win as they remain level second bottom.

Marseille’s win edged them above Lens into second, and trimmed PSG’s lead to eight points.

At Marseille’s raucous Velodrome stadium there were 63,800 fans on hand to see Croatian coach Igor Tudor’s charges bounce back from a 0-0 stalemate at Lorient last week.

Vitinha’s two tap ins and a fine goal from Turkish striker Cengiz Under left them a point above third-placed Lens and three above Monaco, who beat Lorient 3-0.

Elsewhere, Lille scored twice in two minutes late in the second half as they fought back earlier on Sunday for a 2-1 home victory over Montpellier. Strasbourg beat Ajaccio 3-1, Auxerre edged Nantes 2-1 and Clermont-Ferrand also beat Angers 2-1 as Nice went down 1-0 at Brest.

Published in Dawn, April 18th, 2023