French giants Marseille produced a convincing away performance to defeat Groningen 3-0 in their Europa League opener this evening.
Marseille looked dangerous from the beginning of the match, as on-loan Real Madrid man Lucas Silva came close to opening the scoring after just three minutes, but his effort from outside the box was comfortably saved by Sergio Padt.
Romain Alessandrini came close to opening the scoring for the visitors soon after, as the winger cut inside from the right to produce a shot, but Padt kept the effort out.
The French outfit opened the scoring on 25 minutes through Georges-Kevin Nkoudou, who produced a good finish from the left-hand side of the penalty area.
Marseille made it 2-0 before half time through Lucas Ocampos, who picked up a through-ball from Andre Anguissa before producing a powerful finish.
After the break Groningen almost found an equaliser, as Michael de Leeuw fired wide from just outside the penalty area.
Alessandrini added Marseille's third goal on 61 minutes, as the winger met Benjamin Mendy's cross with a neat shot from inside the Groningen penalty box.
De Leeuw missed two decent chances to pull a goal back for the hosts, before Mimoun Mahi forced a save from Steve Mandanda before the final whistle.
Stephen Topping
