This Wednesday evening, Olympique de Marseille had the opportunity to revive after their defeat, without having really given the impression of fighting, against Paris Saint-Germain last Sunday (0-3). For this, the Olympians welcomed, in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France, which they have not raised since 1989, the tenth in Ligue 2, Annecy.
For this, Igor Tudor lined up a team with a defensive trio Chancel Mbemba, Leonardo Balerdi, Sead Kolasinac while Dimitri Payet, Alexis Sanchez and Ruslan Malinovskyi were in front. In the first half, without really forcing, OM opened the scoring through Jordan Veretout. Then, the Phocaeans didn’t do much more, to be honest. A confrontation that reminded a little bit of the defeat at the start of the season against AC Ajaccio (1-2).
And tonight, like that of the defeat against the Corsican team, a player had a nightmarish evening. This is Leonardo Balerdi. Rather correct in the first period, the Argentinian completely liquefied in the second period. On the goal of the equalizer, he steps back, like what he had done on Brahimi’s goal against Nice, then lets Sahi hit.
Balerdi finished in tears
A few minutes later, he drops the mark from a corner, hampered a little by Rongier, and allows Mouanga to place a victorious header. He believed, probably to be saved by the equalizer of François Régis Mughe at the very end of the match, but the law of series exists. We probably wouldn’t be talking about it if Nuno Tavares hadn’t missed his shot on goal, but the Argentinian also missed the last attempt, thus eliminating OM from this competition which seemed to be reaching out to him (2 -2, 6 tab to 7).
After his missed shot on goal, the defender, jersey over his eyes to hide his tears, was still comforted by Pau Lopez, Valentin Rongier and at length by Vitinha, the new OM striker. While Rongier apologized in front of the turn with his teammates, the Argentinian stood back. A match that could cost him dearly.
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