MARSEILLE: Jorge Sampaoli marked his first match in charge of Olympique de Marseille with a 1-0 home win against Stade Rennais in Ligue 1 on Wednesday thanks to substitute Michael Cuisance`s late header.

On-loan Bayern Munich midfielder Cuisance rose to meet Luis Henrique`s cross from the lef t, and his header looped over goalkeeper Alfred Gomis with two minutes remaining to earn Marseille their second win in their last 12 league games, three days af ter they were knocked out of the French Cup by amateurs Canet en Roussillon.

The win lifted Marseille up to sixth on 42 points f rom 28 games, 20 behind leaders Lille and two points behind fif th-placed Lens in the race to qualify for the inaugural Europa Conference League.

The game, initially scheduled on January 30, was postponed after Marseille fans broke into the team`s training centre hours before kickoff.

Since then, president Jacques-Henri Eyraud was sacked by owner Frank McCourt and coach Andre Villas-Boas, who was suspended after offering to resign, was replaced by Sampaoli.

The Argentine sat on the bench for the first time on Wednesday, 12 days after being named, after going through a quarandne period due to French government measures to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

`We can`t do everything in two days. There is still a lottocorrect,`saidSampaoli.

-Agencies