The race for the Champions League is totally back on: Irresistible, Monaco racked up a seventh consecutive league victory on Sunday, beating Marseille 2-1, who are no longer progressing and have fallen from the podium.

A quick glance at the standings is enough to understand that the end of the season will be ruthless and that there will inevitably be casualties among the top teams. Because on Sunday evening, with six matchdays remaining, five teams are separated by only three points, from third place, which is giving its all, to seventh place, which is practically worthless.

Lille now occupies the coveted third step of the podium, the one that leads directly to the Champions League. One point behind, Marseille slips to fourth place and has been joined by Monaco (5th), whose impressive winning streak continues.

One length behind, Lyon is fifth and sixth place is occupied by Rennes who, three points from the podium, can also believe in it.

So it's a traffic jam, but if there is one loser in recent weeks, it's OM, beaten one after the other by two direct rivals, Lille and Monaco.

The Monaco team, on the other hand, is hurtling towards the finish line and has gained 14 (!) points on Marseille in just nine matches. Along the way, Sébastien Pocognoli's men defeated Paris Saint-Germain and Lens before stunning Marseille, who lacked sharpness on Sunday in the absence of Mason Greenwood, who was injured and suspended.

Before things settled down after the break, Usain Bolt had kicked off the match. But the first half wasn't exactly a high-octane affair, and no one produced a lightning-fast performance.

- Hradecky decisive -

Until the break, the match was evenly balanced, but not much happened beyond the hesitation of both teams to commit fully to attacking.

Initially, Monaco seemed capable of putting more speed than their opponent in the last third of the field, via Aleksandr Golovine or Maghnes Akliouche, who had two good opportunities in the first quarter of an hour (10th and 13th).

But in the end it was Marseille who were the most dangerous, with several good opportunities for Hamed Traoré, Timothy Weah, Igor Paixao or Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

After the break, however, Monaco moved up a bit higher and put a bit more pressure on, and that was enough to bring down this decidedly fragile OM.

In the 59th minute, Golovin thus finished with a volley a nice move started by Akliouche and extended by a good cross from Jordan Teze (1-0).

At the back, Monaco held on thanks to Lukas Hradecki, the highly reliable goalkeeper the club from the Principality had been searching for for years. The Finn thwarted Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Traoré, and Quinten Timber.

In the aftermath, Monaco extended their lead through Folarin Balogun, who scored a magnificent lob after resisting the run of the very tender CJ Egan-Riley, who was injured on the play (2-0, 74th minute).

Amine Gouiri revived Marseille's hopes by scoring in the 85th minute and, at the very end of the match, OM were still threatening and Hradecky vigilant, as on a header from Medina, or lucky, as on a shot from Aubameyang cleared on his line by Teze.

In the end, Monaco held on, despite being without Paul Pogba, who was on the team sheet but didn't play. As for end-of-season awards, nothing is decided yet. But between Monaco's consistent winning streak and Marseille's struggles, the dynamics are clear.