Marseille started the match without injured Argentine international playmaker Lucho Gonzalez, prompting Didier Deschamps into a shake up that saw Hilton replace Taye Taiwo at left back and Baky Kone join Brandao and Mamadou Niang in a three-pronged attack.

That decision paid off handsomely, with Niang, Hilton and Brandao adding their names to a scoresheet that was loaded with goals in the latter stages.

However Marseille's eventual dominance of their fourth encounter in Group C, with their final two games against Real Madrid and AC Milan still to come, was initially not all their own doing.

Marseille started with punch but when the opening goal came on three minutes the head of Zurich midfielder Silvan Aegerter turned the ball past Johnny Leoni in the visitors' net.

Marseille continued to dominate the early stages and, again, another free kick from the left led to their second goal.

This time a more cohesive Zurich defense held their line firmly as Niang, Brandao and Kone all pushed towards goal.

But all three players appeared blatantly off-side when Fabrice Abriel's free kick rose then dipped dangerously close to the Zurich net before beating the Zurich 'keeper.

Marseille had two chances to pull further ahead, the first when Bruno Cheyrou's angled shot, after some nice play by Abriel then Niang, was shot straight at Leoni.

On 25 minutes Brandao, unmarked barely 10 yards from the goal, then fired a first-time effort over the crossbar after Niang had provided the pass after pouncing on a poor clearance by the Zurich defense.

When Zurich reduced the deficit six minutes later it came without any external assistance.

Frenchman Alexandre Alphonse picked up a pass just outside the area, turned and held off defenders Stephane Mbia and Gabriel Heinze to beat Steve Mandanda with a great left-foot drive.