The team beginning the match second-bottom were out to frustrate their second-placed hosts by sitting deep, and that plan worked for Le Havre in the opening quarter of the tie, as they limited Marseille to long-range Adrien Rabiot and Mason Greenwood strikes which whistled narrowly wide.
They were fortunate to have former Marseille man Andre Ayew on the line to clear a Rabiot header from a corner, but the deluge that destroyed them wasn’t to be delayed much further.
On the 25-minute mark, a poor clearance went straight to Valentin Rongier, and he was afforded too much space 25 yards from goal, before driving a clean strike into the bottom corner for his second league goal of the campaign.
The goal did nothing to change Le Club Doyen’s defensive approach, which turned out to be futile anyway, with two more goals for Marseille before half-time. Quentin Merlin slotted a ball through to Bilal Nadir, who arrowed a shot from a tight angle past Arthur Desmas to make it 2-0 before Merlin headed a cross back across goal and was nodded home by Neal Maupay for Marseille’s third.
Maupay was at the forefront of Les Phoceens’ hunt for their fourth goal early in the second half, but his finishing touch was lacking in the opening minutes when he dragged his shot wide after forcing his way through tight marking to create the opportunity.
Soon after that, he beat the offside trap to meet Greenwood’s scooped pass over the top and tried to loft it over Desmas, but the goalkeeper got fingertips to it and diverted it onto the crossbar.
A fourth goal always looked inevitable though, and it arrived midway through the half. This time it was Greenwood who proved to be the architect when he met a long ball forward and he drew the goalkeeper out, before squaring the ball to Maupay’s replacement, Elye Wahi, who applied the simple finish.
Roberto De Zerbi’s side weren’t done there, as with 15 minutes left, Amir Murillo got to the byline and played the ball across to Ulisses Garcia, who was on hand for the tap-in.
The visitors pulled a late and inconsequential consolation goal back with an Ayew header, with muted celebrations from the away end accompanying what was only the 12th goal of the season for Didier Digard’s team.
Their league-high 12th defeat of the campaign had long been etched in stone, and while that goal meant the hosts have still kept just one home clean sheet this term, they have extended their unbeaten H2H run to 21 matches and look well on course to seal a place in next season’s Champions League.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Quentin Merlin (Marseille)