The final remains in sight and, given the difficulties encountered during the evening, it is ultimately the essential. Olympique de Marseille (OM) was beaten (2-3), Thursday April 28, in Rotterdam (Netherlands) by Feyenoord, in the semi-final first leg of the Europa League Conference, a score which can still allow Marseillais to win a sixth European final.
Arrived in the Netherlands with a series of ten victories in eleven matches, OM fell from quite a height. The last French representatives in Europe, the Marseillais were probably hoping for another result, but they were too weak defensively in a match that saw two teams playful in front and generous behind.
From the start, Feyenoord put a lot of intensity, in the wake of a furious pre-match, where the De Kuip stadium was transformed into a gigantic open-air nightclub before being covered in smoke from dozens of torches lit by the Dutch and Marseille supporters. To trap the opposing defense, Jorge Sampaoli had bet, in attack, on the speed of Cédric Bakambu and especially on Bamba Dieng, rather than on Arkadiusz Milik, again sent to the bench. The plan could have worked from the start but Bamba Dieng, twice launched deep, first stumbled on Marciano (8e) then hit next (14e).
Apart from these two actions, the Marseillais suffered terribly and on each breakthrough of the Feyenoord attack, like the two Dutch goals scored in two minutes. At the 18eit was first Cyriel Dessers who opened the scoring after a decisive pass from Luis Sinisterra in a backheel (1-0), the Colombian winger, his team’s best player, then scored the second goal on his own, d ‘ a shot deflected by Rongier (2-0, 20e).
The Caleta-Car dumpling
The Marseille team was then far from Tirana – where the final of this competition will take place on May 25 – then seemed carried away by the fury of a stadium where David Trezeguet had offered Euro 2000 to the Blues thanks to a golden goal .
But while they seemed suffocated, Dimitri Payet and his family found a little air on a nice collective action concluded by Dieng with a shot from the right (2-1, 28e). The Dutch hinge and its goalkeeper left doubtful and this impression was to be confirmed ten minutes later with the Marseille equalizer. Starting from Gerson, the OM movement resulted in a recovery from the Brazilian, irresistible at the moment, after going through Payet and Guendouzi, via a bad intervention by goalkeeper Marciano (2-2, 40e).
OM seemed to be out of the storm until an incredible blunder by defender Caleta-Car as soon as the second half started. Like a bad gift for Steve Mandanda’s hundredth European outing with OM, the Croatian sent his goalkeeper a completely missed back pass. Dessers intercepted it and put Feyernoord back in front (3-2, 46e). With this double and eleven goals in total, the Belgian-Nigerian striker dominates the ranking of scorers in the competition.
OM struggled to recover from this absurd goal and the rest of the match was to bring its share of defensive scares, due to the feverishness of OM defenders in front of their goal. There were some attacking thrills too, with Dieng missing two great opportunities to equalise. At the end of the match, Marciano then Mandanda each made a decisive save but the score did not move.
“At this stage of the tournament, you can’t go wrong and stay asphyxiated, conceded the Argentinian coach of OM, Jorge Sampaoli. It was hard and the frustration of not being able to play led to mistakes. It’s a learning curve for the future and the return match. »
The finalist of the competition will be decided in Marseille on Thursday – the winner will face the English of Leicester or the Italians of Roma; the two teams drew (1-1) in the first leg, in England. During this confrontation at the Vélodrome, the Virage Nord will remain empty, closed by UEFA after several incidents this season, but the Marseille supporters will, in turn, have a role to play.
Before that, OM must receive Lyon on Sunday. The appointment is no less important. Because the Provençaux want to keep their second place in the league and return to Europe next season, but by qualifying this time for the great Champions League and not just the “C4”.
