Caen coach Patrice Garande has praised his players for their second-half turnaround as they rallied to beat title hopefuls Marseille 3-2 away from home in Ligue 1.

Marseille appeared to be cruising with a 2-0 lead with just under 30 minutes remaining, but goals from Nicolas Seube, Emiliano Sala and Nicolas Benezet capped off a memorable night for Garande's men.

"When we saw the Marseille line-up, we tried to put someone on [Giannelli] Imbula all the time to make it harder for them to get from back to front," the coach said, according to the official Ligue 1 website.

"In the first half I thought we were unfocused, using the ball poorly in midfield. I told the players to let their hair down a bit. We are getting the breaks at the moment, but the players went looking for the win on merit.

"Everything is working because everyone is in tune. This was better than at the Parc des Princes [when Caen drew 2-2 with Paris Saint-Germain] because they were down to nine men, but I am most satisfied because of the difference between our first-half performance and the second half."

The victory sees Caen sitting in 10th place in the Ligue 1 standings.