Three months later, OM fell: after a long series of invincibility, Marseille were beaten on Sunday by Nice (3-1), who took their revenge for the first leg, and thus suddenly came down to earth at three days of receiving Paris Saint-Germain in the Cup.
The last Marseille defeat in the league dates back to the 12th day and the arrival of Lens on October 22. Eight days later, Tottenham also came to win at the Vélodrome, then Marseille had a string of positive results with nine wins and a draw in all competitions. But the draw in question, 1-1 against Monaco, dates back just a week and it indicates that Igor Tudor’s side are a little less sovereign before they try their luck in the Cup on Wednesday against Lionel Messi and the others.
Always second
In the league, PSG, even average, has also regained a little margin by beating Toulouse and is now eight lengths ahead of Marseille. OM remain second but have been overtaken by Lens (3rd), which has the same number of points. Other bad news for the Marseillais, Monaco (4th) is coming back strong and is only two points behind.
For what was still a very good L1 poster, Tudor had chosen Sunday to rotate its workforce quite widely, a sign that the opponent expected on Wednesday is not just anyone. Left on the bench at kick-off, Malinovskyi, Veretout and Sanchez will therefore most likely be holders in the Cup, but before that, they especially really missed this Sunday. Launched directly into the deep end, the Portuguese striker Vitinha has indeed logically lacked benchmarks. He ran a lot but only signaled himself with a shot from the left clearly above (43rd).
Nice is getting better
Behind him, Payet for his part clearly lacked rhythm with only 45 minutes in the legs in the last three games. Bet lost therefore for Tudor, who released their duo N.9 / N.10 at the break. But OM were already trailing 2-0, Nice having been extremely efficient before returning to the locker room, with two goals scored on similar actions.
In the 38th minute, Diop thus followed a shot from Laborde badly repelled by Pau Lopez to score with a header (1-0) then, five minutes later, it was this time Laborde who doubled the lead by taking a shot de Thuram insufficiently dismissed by the Spanish goalkeeper (2-0, 43rd).
Marseille, however, had entered the match well, with great intensity, and had subjected Nice to furious pressing. But the Aiglons (8th) are doing better since the arrival at the controls of Didier Digard (now four wins and a draw) and they came out of the Marseille canvas with confidence, threatened only by a shot from Under well released by Schmeichel (22nd ).
Malinovskyi gave hope
Led as they had been against Monaco, the Marseillais pushed in the second period and came back on the hour mark thanks to the first goal from Malinovskyi, who took over with a heavy strike from the left a good center back from Clauss (2-1, 60th).
Sanchez then had two real chances (79th and 84th) but lacked efficiency, which was not the case with Brahimi. On a counter, the young winger from Nice fixed Balerdi and deceived Pau Lopez to seal the success of Nice (3-1, 86th), which had been swept 3-0 in the first leg. For OM, it will now be a question of bouncing back. Against PSG, it’s not necessarily easy, but it’s also a great opportunity.