They did not take off. This Monday morning the Marseille city is only talking about that. These are the decisions taken by the referee during the Olympico on Sunday evening which saw OM undergo a real correction (0-3) from their Lyon rival. A defeat which allows Rennes and Monaco to return to just 3 lengths from Marseille – runners-up to PSG – at the end of this 35th day of Ligue 1. The end of the season promises to be thrilling and under high tension for second place in the classification and tickets for the next Champions League.
In question – in particular – the decision not to whistle a penalty for a handball by Lyonnais Moussa Dembélé in his area (26th) or not to cancel OM’s first goal due to an offside position and a contact from Dembélé on Pau Lopez. Each time the VAR was used to validate the sentence.
If Dembélé considers that he has not committed a fault – “I touch the ball, it is he who comes at me. The referee did not whistle a foul, so there is no foul (…). It’s not dancing, it’s football. So, there are contacts, necessarily, and no, there is a goal “-, the Marseille camp is not of the same opinion.
More boiling than ever on his bench during the meeting, the Argentinian coach Jorge Sampaoli did not hide his misunderstanding of the decisions of Antony Gautier, the man in black of the match, at a press conference. “Before the mistakes of the referee, we were better, we had control. Unfortunately we are penalized, we cannot change that, fumed the Marseille coach. I regret it because our team was superior in the first half. (…) But I am no one to ask for explanations or denounce those who have the power to judge. They assume but today we are very penalized. I am very disappointed. We have seen painful things for us, which we must bear. »
The coach was reminded that his team “already been penalized in Paris” during the “clasico” of the championship in mid-April (2-1 defeat).
As soon as the match ended, Jacques Cardoze, OM’s communications director, also ranted at these blows – or not blows – of the whistle. “These unequal treatment from one match to another can only fuel frustration and misunderstanding. »
A frustration that the Marseillais will have to quickly evacuate as the capital looms in the semi-final second leg of the Europa League Conference on Thursday against the Dutch from Feyenoord Rotterdam (3-2 defeat in the first leg last week).
“There is no solution, we have to think about Thursday and keep our lead in the league, insisted Sampaoli. We play important things. »
