Marseille concedes a draw in Lorient and loses ground on Lens

Olympique de Marseille made away matches their specialty but, hung 0-0 in Lorient, OM missed the opportunity, Sunday April 9, to continue their series and come back up to Lens, second, at the end of the 30th day of Ligue 1.

At the end of the weekend, only two teams in the top 5 can smile: Paris Saint-Germain, still the leader with a six-point lead after their victory on Saturday in Nice (2-0), and RC Lens, now only second. in the standings after his success on Friday against Strasbourg (2-1). The club of the capital and its dolphin will face next Saturday at the Parc des Princes for the match at the top of the 31ᵉ day.

The Marseillais, third, are two lengths behind Lens eight days from the end and have lost points in the race for the Champions League. “It’s a disappointment. The match was within our reach but we missed things in the last gestures, recognized Matteo Guendouzi, at the microphone of Amazon Prime, after the meeting. There is no pressure, there are still a lot of matches. »

Marseille stops at eight away wins

Attentive and unapologetic, the Lorient defense put an end to Marseille’s series of eight straight away wins, even if Les Merlus (10^e45 pts) lacked too much edge to do better.

Indeed, Marseille quickly put pressure on the opposing camp, but only Chilean striker Alexis Sanchez really knew how to create danger. On the Lorient side, if the defense held firm, the absence in midfield of Laurent Abergel, suspended, and Enzo Le Fée, complicated the ball outings. Despite everything, Romain Faivre caused the first chills by taking advantage of poor control from Leonardo Balerdi. Left alone towards the goal, he did not resist the return of Samuel Gigot (6^e).

Opposite, Cengiz Ünder despaired the Marseille supporters. Well served by Sanchez, he shot Vito Mannone (12^e) or next to it (47^e). And when recovering from a bad recovery from the Lorient goalkeeper, he procrastinated and missed the target (35^e). Struggling for months, his Marseille teammates Jonathan Clauss and Nuno Tavares almost found the right connection, but the strike from the right piston, served by the left piston, was deflected (40^e). And the Portuguese then found Jean-Victor Makengo on a full-axis strike (65^e).

Opposite, the defector Bamba Dieng, who arrived in Lorient in January, gradually gained strength, first eclipsed by Adil Aouchiche, who was celebrating his first tenure in L1 in the Lorient jersey, before forcing Pau Lopez to a reflex parade on a resumption of the left in the surface (63^e).

And in a lively end to the match, the Merlus, who had lost all their matches against OM since their rise to the top flight in 2020, even took the luxury of being the most dangerous, in particular by Ibrahima Koné, came on in place of Dieng for the final ten minutes.

“Bitter feeling” for Monaco

OM, who must also look in their rear-view mirror, can consider themselves lucky that Monaco, fourth, did not keep up the pace in Nantes despite a two-goal lead at half-time. On the heels of their qualification for the Coupe de France final, Wednesday against Lyon (1-0), the Canaries and their public regained the upper hand in the second half, and the inevitable Ludovic Blas ended up equalizing in the 78ᵉ minute (2-2). The Monegasques remain three points from the podium. “We clearly leave La Beaujoire with a bitter feeling”railed on Canal + Axel Disasi, disappointed scorer for Monaco, who also lets slip valuable points.

Desperate for elimination in the semi-finals of the Cup, Lyon can rub their hands in front of these results, after having signed a second success in a row in Ligue 1. After Paris SG (1-0), OL dominated the Stade Rennes after a stunning second period, and advanced to the end of the weekend in seventh place, with still intact chances of snagging fifth place, synonymous with qualification for the Europa League Conference.

In the fight to maintain, Ajaccio and Troyes have, for their part, fewer and fewer arguments on which to rely for their end of the season. The Corsicans, nineteenth, were largely dominated (3-0) by a direct competitor, Auxerre, fifteenth: the two teams are now separated by eight points. Troyes also lost at home, against Clermont (2-0), and stagnated in eighteenth place, ahead of Ajaccio and Angers and behind Strasbourg, beaten Friday by Lens (2-1).