Red-hot Marseille score nine in Cup thrashing

Paris (AFP) – In-form Marseille crushed second-tier Bourg-en-Bresse with a 9-0 thumping to reach the French Cup quarter-finals on Tuesday, with Kostas Mitroglou and Lucas Ocampos both scoring hat-tricks.

Rudi Garcia’s side, who are second in Ligue 1 after thrashing Metz 6-3 last week, romped into a 4-0 lead inside 20 minutes at the struggling Ligue 2 side and showed no mercy against hapless opponents.

“We had an actual nightmare, the two sides were a world apart,” admitted Bourg-en-Bresse coach Herve Della Maggiore. “We watched them play.”

Despite making six changes to the starting XI, Marseille ended the tie as a contest with early goals from Luiz Gustavo, Dimitri Payet, Ocampos and Mitroglou.

Greek international striker Mitroglou has struggled to nail down a place in the team since joining from Benfica last year, but he strolled through the vacant home defence to score the fifth before half-time.

Argentinian Ocampos grabbed his second early in the second half, although he was made to wait to complete his treble as Marseille went a game-high 23 minutes without scoring before he headed home.

Mitroglou quickly got back in on the act as some more awful defending allowed him to nod in his seventh goal for the club, before Clinton N’Jie wrapped up the scoring with number nine from the penalty spot.

Marseille have now won eight and drawn one of their last nine matches in all competitions, scoring 30 goals in the process.

But they fell well short of their record win — a 19-0 French Cup victory over Stade Raphaelois in 1933.

Holders Paris Saint-Germain visit Sochaux later on Tuesday as they continue their bid for a fourth straight French Cup.