Marseille 3-1 Aston Villa

Aston Villa’s pre-season preparations continued with a 3-1 defeat at the hands of Olympique de Marseille in their penultimate summer friendly on Saturday evening.

Goals from Mason Greenwood and Villa captain John McGinn saw the encounter tied at the halfway point, though two late strikes from substitute Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang tipped the result in favour of the French side.

Unai Emery’s players were once again tested in sweltering conditions before a raucous atmosphere in Marseille, in a game which saw four Villans complete the full game and nine of their starting XI complete at least 80 minutes.

Villa now conclude their preparations for 2025/26 on Sunday evening, travelling to the south of Spain to take on Villarreal (ko 8pm BST).

The hosts started on the front foot, roared on by a capacity crowd in the south of France, and with just five minutes on the clock, they were ahead.

Greenwood pounced on a heavy touch from Tyrone Mings after a ball over the top, rounded Marco Bizot, and tapped into the empty Villa net.

But Emery’s men weren’t behind for long and, within three minutes of falling behind, had hit back to level matters.

Jacob Ramsey turned inside the home side’s half and neatly picked out McGinn with a defence-splitting ball through the middle, and the visiting skipper made no mistake, dinking deftly over Gerónimo Rulli and into the back of the net, much to the delight of the 500 travelling supporters.

Marseille enjoyed a lot of the ball, and carved out the game’s next opening midway through the opening period, Adrien Rabiot steering Jonathan Rowe’s centre narrowly over, but from then on, it was the Villans who created the more meaningful openings ahead of the half-time break.

Just five minutes after Rabiot had gone close, the Ramsey-McGinn combination almost bore fruit once again for the visiting side, the winger finding the late run of his captain into the area from a wide position, but the Scot miscuing his effort wide.

Then, two minutes later, Donyell Malen showed an impressive burst to lead a threatening Villa counter attack. Emery’s forward players moved the ball neatly from left to right, finding Samuel Iling Jr on the far side, but his effort was deflected agonisingly wide.

Marseille were adamant they should have had a penalty deep into the five minutes of first-half stoppage time, after Rowe jinked trickily into the box and hit the deck, but the referee waved away the home side’s appeals and instead brought a lively opening 45 to its conclusion.

The Ligue 1 side, who will compete in next season’s Champions League after a second-placed finish in 2024/25, controlled much of the second period, looking the more likely of the two teams to dig out a second goal.

Within seven minutes of the restart, half-time substitute CJ Egan-Riley dragged a shot from distance comfortably wide of Bizot's post, having been teed up by fellow Englishman Angel Gomes on the edge of the area. 

Ten minutes later, the hosts went closer still. Greenwood hammered goalwards from distance, but his venomous effort was a few yards too high, denying him his second of the game.

Villa hoped the introduction of latest signing Evann Guessand from the bench – for his first appearance in claret and blue since arriving on Friday – would help tip the momentum in their favour.

But it would instead be a Marseille substitute and one of their new recruits, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who would prove the difference maker, as the Gabon international bagged two late goals to seal victory for OM.

First, 14 minutes from time, he acrobatically guided an effort home in the centre having been picked out well from a wide position by Amir Murillo, before three minutes later, tapping home at the back post after Greenwood had burst to the byline and pulled back across goal.

More fresh Villa faces looked to get the visitors back into the game as time ticked away, though Roberto De Zerbi’s side held out for victory in the cauldron-like Orange Vélodrome as the evening drew to a close.

Villa: Bizot; Cash (Konsa 81'), Bogarde, Mings, Digne (Moreno 81'); Hemmings (Kamara 81'), Onana; Iling Jr (Burrowes 81'), McGinn (c) (Tielemans 81'), Ramsey (Buendía 68'); Malen (Guessand 68'). 

Subs not used: Martínez (GK), Proctor (GK); Watkins, Pau, Maatsen, Bailey, Dobbin, Rowe, Patterson, Jimoh-Aloba, Mosquera. 

Marseille: Rulli; Murillo, Balerdi (c), Medina; Gomes (Kondogbia 64'), Højbjerg (Nadir 81'), Garcia (Egan-Riley 46'), Rabiot (Vaz 81'); Greenwood (Maupay 89'), Rowe (Bakola 81'), Gouiri (Aubameyang 64')

Subs not used: de Lange (GK), Vermot (GK); Harit, Cornelius, Lirola.