Marseille’s under-fire boss Roberto De Zerbi has offered to leave his job at the Ligue 1 giants after his team was dumped out of the Champions League on Wednesday.
A humbling 3-0 defeat to Club Brugge and results elsewhere going against them meant that OM finished the league stage in 25th place, and that spells elimination. Marseille were sitting relatively comfortably after six rounds with nine points, but back-to-back losses left them behind Benfica on goal difference after Jose Mourinho’s side won a dramatic 4-2 victory over Real Madrid.
At 3-2 in the 98th minute, goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin scored a stunning goal to send the Portuguese giants through at OM’s expense, and the fiery De Zerbi offered to fall on his sword. On his arrival in 2024, the former Brighton boss inherited a talented squad in Marseille, and his controversial signing of Mason Greenwood has paid off, as the former Manchester United striker sits at the top of the race for the Golden Boot with 12 goals for the season.
But Greenwood couldn’t save his team on Wednesday, and crashing out of Europe’s premier competition so early was not in the owners’ plans, and the pressure on De Zerbi has become painfully clear. The club is ambitious with big plans for the future to return former glories, but inconsistency has hampered progress, though Les Olympiens are sitting third in the league table, seven points behind leaders PSG.
According to reports in the French football press, De Zerbi has offered to walk away. Though his offer may have been in the heat of the moment, he didn’t take charge of training on Thursday. Talks are ongoing and an announcement is due shortly.
The Lens challenge won’t go away
In other Ligue 1 2026 news, the surprise package of RC Lens has a chance to go back to the top of the Ligue 1 table on Friday night when a win over lowly Le Havre would topple PSG off the summit.
With 14 wins and 43 points, Les Sang et Or were proudly on top of the league until they lost 3-1 away to Marseille last week, while PSG edged a 1-0 win away to Auxerre. That defeat ended a winning run of 10 league games, dating back to the beginning of November – a run which certainly put the wind up the Parisiens, who had been watching the likes of OM more closely.
Following an eighth-place finish last term, Lens moved to hire head coach Pierre Sage, who had managed Lyon between 2023 and 2025, and he has worked wonders with a talented squad to put in a genuine challenge for the Ligue 1 title. Sage has an impressive creative unit at his disposal, with winger Wesley Said top scoring with eight goals and two assists; while former Crystal Palace star Odsonne Edouard is in fine form with seven goals and two assists, and Les Bleus star Florian Thauvin has five goals and two assists.
And Lens have conceded just 16 goals with a formidable centre-half partnership of Matthieu Udol and Malang Sarr. Only PSG have conceded fewer and that only after Les Sang et Or shipped three goals last week.
The SBOTOP Ligue 1 2026 betting odds are still squarely behind PSG, but the reigning champions are away to seventh placed Strasbourg on Sunday, and that won’t be a walk in the park , so I won’t be surprised to see Lens back on the summit at the end of the weekend.
Lyon’s recovery continues
The curious case of Lyon seems to have turned in favour of Les Gones after a period of turmoil. Following the appointment of Michele Kang as club president last summer, things have notably improved in Lyon. The club was administratively relegated to Ligue 2 due to its financial mess, but the highly respected Kang convinced the league she would get the house in order, and Lyon were restored to the top-flight. And having finished sixth last term, they had entry into the Europa League.
Managed by Paulo Fonseca and captained by the returned Corentin Tolisso, Lyon have enjoyed a good first half of the campaign, topping the Europa League with seven victories and a single defeat and sitting fourth in the Ligue 1 table, and they have a huge game at home to Lille on Sunday.
Win that clash and the seven-time champions, who dominated the league between 2001 and 2008, could sneak into the Champions League places.
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