Mason Greenwood’s Marseille debut was a resounding success, as he scored twice in a 5-1 rout of Brest in Ligue 1. The former Manchester United forward opened the scoring within three minutes and added another from the penalty spot on the half-hour mark. Luis Henrique also netted twice for Marseille, while Elye Wahi converted a second penalty to complete the scoring.
Greenwood’s arrival at Marseille has been met with controversy, as he was suspended by Manchester United in January 2022 following allegations of attempted rape and sexual assault. However, prosecutors dropped the charges in February 2023, and he spent last season on loan at Getafe.
Despite the off-field concerns, Greenwood’s performance on Saturday was impressive. He was involved in all three of Marseille’s first-half goals, winning the penalty for the second and setting up both of Luis Henrique’s strikes.
Marseille’s new manager, Roberto De Zerbi, was delighted with his team’s performance. “I’m very happy with everything. I’m very pleased with the result and the attitude of the team,” he said. “I don’t know if we’re really good and I don’t know where we’ll come, but people must be sure that this is a group of hard-working players, which is important.”
Brest’s third-place finish last season was their best ever, but they got off to a poor start in their first game of the new campaign. They conceded three goals in the first half and were unable to recover.
“We’re certainly going to have to rethink things if we want to get a good result at Lens,” said Brest coach Eric Roy. “You can go down heavily as we did today… what’s important is to know a bit about this team’s ability to react.”
In another Ligue 1 match, Lille beat Reims 2-0 despite a frightening head injury sustained by Angel Gomes. The former Manchester United midfielder was knocked unconscious by a clash of heads and had to be stretchered off the pitch.
Lille coach Bruno Genesio said he was “very, very scared” by the incident and criticized the conduct of Reims midfielder Amadou Kone, who was sent off for the challenge.
“There are things we shouldn’t see on a pitch. There are fouls you can excuse. This one for me is not one,” said Genesio.
Bafode Diakite put Lille ahead towards the end of 34 minutes of added time in the first half and Jonathan David sealed victory late on.
Monaco, last season’s runners-up, beat promoted Saint-Etienne 1-0 courtesy of a Takumi Minamino goal.
Paris Saint-Germain began their title defense with a 4-1 win at Le Havre on Friday in their first game since the departure of talisman Kylian Mbappe to Real Madrid.
