Olympique de Marseille drags on the road to Europe

Bad operation for Olympique de Marseille (OM), who hoped to take advantage of Strasbourg’s coming to the Stade Vélodrome to grab fifth qualifying place for European competitions. They were held in check 1-1, Friday April 30, and remain sixth in the standings after the first match of the 35e Ligue 1 day.

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The result could have been even worse since OM only equalized in the 86e minute thanks to two substitutes, the centering Luis Henrique and the striker Dario Benedetto, both very close on the action. The Marseillais then pushed to snatch the victory, encouraged by Jorge Sampaoli and his “Vamos! “.

But OM certainly did not deserve more than a point, just sanction of a game played in slow motion and in which the Marseillais never found spaces. The last match won in Reims (3-1) and the progress seen in Champagne were nevertheless hopeful and required confirmation. Strasbourg did not leave room for this.

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In the first period, the Marseillais exchanged a lot of passes to try to crack the reinforced concrete block built by Thierry Laurey and in particular the line of five defenders posed low in front of the goalkeeper Mats Sels. OM were in control, but they lacked speed and especially space, which none of the players of the moment, Lirola, Payet or Milik, could not find.

“Mini-championship for fifth place”

Without a solution, the Sampaoli team perhaps hoped that the light would come from the now famous “Milik-Time”, the five minutes before the break during which the Pole scored all of his five goals in Ligue 1. But the former Neapolitan had nothing to eat apart from a distant and crushed strike and the most dangerous of the first period were finally Balerdi, upset at the 17e minute by a parade of handball keeper from Sels, and… the Strasbourg people.

Like Ajorque, author of a good shot at 33e minute and still dangerous, the Alsatians have indeed tried to get something from the few rare balls that they have been playing in the opposing camp, forcing OM to remain cautious.

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After the break, the match continued at the same pace, and nothing happened until 62e minute and a strike above Payet then a header from Milik (69e), which should have done better. Meanwhile, Strasbourg was a little emboldened, with two dangerous strikes from Liénard, remarkable throughout and still maneuvering on the opening of the scoring with a corner perfectly shot towards the head of Mitrovic (1-0, 73e).

At the end of the day, the good operation is of course Alsatian and Strasbourg is now very close to being maintained. For Marseille, on the other hand, the European objective is complicated. Saturday, Lens (5e) will go to the Parc des Princes to face Paris-Saint-Germain but OM will not take full advantage of this difficult move by their main rival for fifth place. And Rennes (7e), who will go to Bordeaux on Sunday, can also come back.

“There is a mini-championship for fifth place. We lose two points today. We will see what the others will do ”, summarized Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda on Canal +.

The World with AFP