Marseille have left Moldova with a strong advantage for the return leg in France after an excellent 2-1 win over Sheriff Tiraspol.
The ever-lively Andre Ayew opened the scoring in the 18th minute, but Sheriff were on level terms just eight minutes later through Tomislav Pajovic.
Marseille started the second half strongly and were back in front on 53 minutes, this time Andre-Pierre Gignac giving the French side the advantage.
Despite their efforts, Sheriff were unable to equalise for a second time and now have a lot of work to do to qualify for the Europa League groups stage.
