Marseille beats Caen to make League Cup semifinals

Posted Wednesday, January 11, 2012 by YAHOO Sport

PARIS (AP)—Mathieu Valbuena extended his scoring streak with two goals as Marseille won 3-0 at Caen to reach the League Cup semifinals on Tuesday.

Marseille has won the trophy for the last two years and completely domintated against a Caen team struggling for form.

The France winger put the holders ahead with a curling free kick after seven minutes and striker Loic Remy made it 2-0 midway through the first half.

Valbuena wrapped up the win in the 52nd minute with a clinical finish after a superb dummy from Lucho Gonzalez gave him plenty of time to pick his spot. Valbuena has scored six goals in the last six games.

“We want to keep hold of this Cup because we’ve won it for the last two years,” Valbuena said. “It’s a great feeling to score again. We’ve got a great team spirit here, we were very well organized tonight and played with a lot of rigor.”

Caen battled but lots confidence after winger Romain Hamouma missed two chances late in the first half.

Marseille, which thrashed Red Star 5-0 to reach the last 32 of the French Cup last weekend, has won seven of its last eight games and is in a rich vein of form heading into Sunday’s first division match at home to Lille.

“We’ve got through in both Cups and that was our objective,” Marseille coach Didier Deschamps said. “We did well tonight and now we’ve got a big game coming up on Sunday.”

In Wednesday’s quarterfinals, it is: Nice vs. Dijon; Le Mans vs. Lorient and Lyon vs. Lille.