Paris (AFP) – A record home crowd saw Marseille beat Lyon in a fiery encounter and Freiburg’s coach was barged over by the opposing team’s captain in a weekend of European football when passion spilled over into anger.
AFP Sport looks at three of the main talking points:
Record crowd and bus attack in Marseille
Marseille’s supporters confirmed their reputation as France’s most passionate fans as a 65,421 crowd set a home attendance record at the Velodrome and the stands were lit up by flares and a remarkable visual effect of the Mediterranean port’s Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde Basilica to mark the club’s 120th anniversary.
On a more sinister note, Lyon’s team bus was pelted with missiles on the way to the stadium, smashing windows on one side of the vehicle.
A stormy match was decided by Dmitri Payet who scored twice and Marseille clung on for a 2-1 win despite having Alvaro Gonzalez sent off for denying Moussa Dembele a clear scoring chance.
Ugly scenes in Freiburg as coach barged over
Eintracht Frankfurt captain David Abraham was sent off for barging into Freiburg coach Christian Streich on the sidelines of a bad-tempered Bundesliga match on Sunday.
Argentinian defender Abraham charged into Streich, 54, after the ball had gone out of play.
Freiburg winger Vincenzo Grifo, who was already off the pitch having been substituted, was also shown a red card on the bench for grabbing Abraham by the throat in the ensuing melee.
Nils Petersen’s 77th minute goal gave Freiburg victory and moved them into fourth place in the Bundesliga.
“I don’t give a damn about the whole scene, it isn’t worth a story,” said Streich, after he had picked himself up.
Abraham faces a lengthy ban for his rush of blood to the head.
Pressure mounts for Ancelotti’s Napoli
Carlo Ancelotti’s Napoli crisis deepened with a drab goalless draw at home against Genoa in Serie A on Saturday after being held 1-1 by Salzburg in the Champions League midweek.
Fans vented their fury at the players’ decision not to respect a training camp lockdown ordered by the club president after a poor series of results.
“You should be ashamed” and “Get to work” were among the banners with the players jeered as the club settled for a point against 17th-placed Genoa.
Serie A runners-up for the past two years, Napoli stretched their winless run in Serie A to four games — three draws and a defeat — to sit seventh.
The southerners have 19 points — 13 behind leaders Juventus — their worst tally after 12 games since the 2011-2012 season when they finished fifth.
According to reports in Italy the next two matches could be decisive for Ancelotti’s future. They play AC Milan in the San Siro on November 23 before travelling to Liverpool four days later.
