Hojbjerg lost the Marseille armband over the summer, and scored the last goal of a 4-0 opening night
Ligue 1 restarted at the Orange Velodrome with a goalless first half and then four goals inside 45 minutes. Amine Gouiri took two of them, and a 59th-minute red card took the game away from Strasbourg.
Aug 22, 2026
Ligue 1 came back on Friday night at the Orange Velodrome, and for 45 minutes it was hard to tell that Marseille were about to win 4-0. Strasbourg held them to a goalless first half. Then Amine Gouiri scored a minute into the second, Strasbourg lost a man, and the evening turned into the sort of opening statement Bruno Genesio could not have scripted better.
Gouiri got the first in the 46th minute and the second from the penalty spot in the 68th. Keyliane Abdallah drove in a third at the near post in the 89th, and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg finished it with a controlled volley six minutes into stoppage time.
The red card that broke it open
Marseille were already ahead when Samir El Mourabet was sent off in the 59th minute. It was not a challenge for the ball. He swiped at Hojbjerg away from play, referee Ruddy Buquet was sent to the monitor, and the red card followed after the VAR review. Strasbourg played the last half hour a man down and conceded three in that time.
Three of Marseille’s four goals came after that, and Strasbourg barely got out of their own half once the third went in. Only the opening 45 minutes ever looked like a contest.
Hojbjerg made his own point
There is a subplot in that fourth goal. Hojbjerg wore the Marseille captain’s armband last season and lost it over the summer, with Genesio handing it to Tim Weah before the season began. Weah led the side out on Friday. Hojbjerg was the man El Mourabet kicked, and he was the man who scored the last goal of the night. If he wanted a way to answer a demotion in public, that was one.
Weah’s own promotion is worth watching. He came to Marseille from Juventus in August 2025, on loan with an obligation to buy, after two seasons in Turin where he rarely started. Genesio’s explanation for the switch was straightforward enough: the American fits what he wants in a captain. Weah has now played for Lille, PSG and Marseille, and his father George wore the Marseille shirt in 2000-01, so the club is not unfamiliar territory for the family.
Genesio starts where Marseille needed him to
Genesio took the job on 1 July. He replaced Habib Beye, who lasted four months and 13 matches after arriving on 19 February, which was itself a response to De Zerbi walking away in the wake of a 5-0 defeat to PSG. Three managers in one calendar year is not the record of a settled club. Genesio at least arrives with something to point to, having taken Lille to third place last season, and Lyon and Rennes before that. Marseille spent the same season watching PSG win a fifth Ligue 1 title in a row. Nobody in the south of France needs reminding of that.
One win in August settles nothing. It does mean Marseille sit top of a table that has barely been printed, and that Genesio has the first thing a new manager at this club has to have, which is a crowd on his side.
A tribute before kick-off
Before the game the Velodrome held a minute’s applause for Eric Roy, who died on 17 June at 58. Roy played three seasons for Marseille between 1996 and 1999 and later managed Brest for three years. Ligue 1 planned a second tribute at Nice against Lorient on Saturday.