Balerdi-Pavard deliver clean sheet as Marseille edge Toulouse 1-0 | OneFootball

Marseille finally posted a Ligue 1 clean sheet, winning 1-0 at Toulouse and ending an eight-game league run of conceding, as Leonardo Balerdi and Benjamin Pavard steadied the defence.

According to L'Équipe, before the trip Habib Beye noted only nine clean sheets in the past year, and at least two conceded in each of the previous five games. After a drab but valuable night, this was just their third of 2026, after Bayeux 9-0 and Stade Rennais 3-0 in the Coupe de France.

Toulouse cranked up the second-half pressure but Beye's side stayed compact and the centre-backs stood out. Balerdi responded to Wednesday's cup exit to Toulouse, 2-2 then 4-3 on penalties. He has rebounded before, notably in March 2023 after the Annecy shootout, when Igor Tudor started him at Rennes and he delivered.

Successive Marseille coaches, from André Villas-Boas to Gennaro Gattuso, Roberto de Zerbi and Tudor, have valued Balerdi despite a harsher public view. On Saturday Beye echoed that, calling him the defence's leader and praising his personality.

Pavard was equally solid. After a torrid night at Brest two weeks ago, then benchings against Lyon in the league and Toulouse in the cup, he seized what felt like a last chance with firm, composed interventions, including in the 62nd minute.

With Nayef Aguerd hampered by pubalgia and absent on Saturday, the 2018 World Cup winner has a spring window to stake a claim. Beye's flexible shape often switches to a back three, suiting the Inter Milan loanee.

Source: L'Équipe