Olympique de Marseille made their debut in Ligue 1 this season by winning 3 goals to 2 in Brest, thanks to the achievements of Florian Thauvin (20th) and Duje Caleta-Car (27th and 80th), closing Sunday night of the 2nd day of L1. For his first tenure with OM since May 2019, Thauvin was Marseille’s most prominent player, with a goal and two superb assists for Caleta-Car.
What you must remember :
It was back to school day (postponed) for Olympique de Marseille, deprived of the opening match of Ligue 1 2020-2021 last Friday when several Olympians had been diagnosed positive for Covid-19 before their match against Saint- Etienne (postponed to September 17). While the excitement often gives way to the stress of doing badly when a new year starts, André Villas-Boas players can congratulate themselves on having done the job for their recovery, Sunday evening against Brest (2-3 ) at the Francis-Le-Blé stadium.
Florian Thauvin’s teammates, scorer and double passer (see elsewhere) when making his first copy, delivered a satisfactory performance, despite the absences of Dimitri Payet, Bouna Sarr or Alvaro Gonzalez. Also expected for his first, the newcomer Leonardo Balerdi showed interesting things to his comrades and seems endowed with a good reading of the game behind, even if he involuntarily gave the best Brest native Romain Faivre the opportunity to open his goal counter in L1 (45th + 1).
An overall successful return for an OM tenth in the standings, while a most difficult examination is looming: a trip to the lawn of Paris Saint-Germain, on September 13 for the next day of L1. Brest, despite Gaëtan Charbonnier’s goal at the end of the match (89th), is the donkey cap of the start of the season, last with his two initial defeats.
The player: Florian Thauvin
That’s a return that deserves compliments, at least. Holder for the first time in Ligue 1 since May 24, 2019 Florian Thauvin was the most bloody Marseillais on Sunday evening. And it is from the winger that came the first smile of the Olympian season, who with his “special” à la Robben went to transplant from the right on his left foot to unleash a deflected strike which lobbed Gaëtan Larsonneur ( 19th).
On two distilled free kicks, Thauvin is also at the origin of the double scored by Duje Caleta-Car (27th, 80th). He could have distributed a third or even a fourth assist but Dario Benedetto (66th) and Balerdi (84th) did not score. Rather well physically, he played the entire meeting.
The number: 1
Olympique de Marseille have lost only one of their last eighteen L1 matches (thirteen wins, four draws). It was against FC Nantes on February 22 (1-3).
