OM can no longer do it at home. For the fifth time in a row in Ligue 1, he could not win at the Orange-Vélodrome, this Friday evening against Montpellier (1-1). It’s been two and a half months that the players of Igor Tudor have been looking for success at home in the Championship and it is necessarily handicapping, for a candidate for the Champions League. This Saturday evening, Lens also has the opportunity to steal second place from them, in the event of success in Rennes (9 p.m.).
The game: 1-1
The return from the international break is always difficult to manage for teams playing on Fridays, and Igor Tudor was probably unable to field the team he dreamed of. Chancel Mbemba, who played Tuesday night for DR Congo, started on the bench, unlike Alexis Sanchez, who had given Chile victory in Santiago the night before and only arrived in Marseille on Wednesday.
The striker was lined up in support of Vitinha, who was celebrating his second start of the season and the first association between the two men at kick-off. But the Portuguese’s performance was not much better than when it was baptized in Ligue 1 two months ago. It must be said that he was not the only Olympian inside, during a failed first period which saw OM quickly behind. Khazri started from his own area, played Guendouzi, went up to the middle line before serving Wahi, who gave Nordin, without pity for Blanco (0-1, 12th).
Montpellier was not even destabilized by the exit for a concussion protocol from Kouyaté, replaced by Sakho. And we had to wait 35 minutes to see a slightly dangerous strike from the Marseillais. But Clauss could not find the frame and it was Wahi, again him, who almost made the goal of the break but finally collided with Blanco (39th).
The MHSC was going to regret it, since almost immediately, a strike from Alexis was countered with his hand by Sakho. Guendouzi snatched the ball from the Chilean and equalized (1-1, 44th). The only shot on target from the PSG dolphin before the break. Afterwards, there were no more, with just a header from Kolasinac captured (82nd). The Tudor players still believed in snatching victory on a strong center from the Bosnian that Sanchez could not touch and that Sylla ended up clearing (88th).
But it would have been very cruel for the players of Michel Der Zakarian, who sent big chills to the Vélodrome with in particular a strike right next to Khazri (66th), and another from Mavididi (77th).
The man: Guendouzi redeems himself
He explained that he sometimes felt less useful behind the striker, where Igor Tudor makes him play most of the time. He’s also been spending a lot of time on the bench lately. On Friday, Mattéo Guendouzi had been put in the best conditions: he was a starter and in the midfield, while Rongier went back down to central defense. But he totally missed his start to the match.
He was notably eaten by Khazri on the opener, before missing a few easy passes. He therefore wanted to redeem himself when the referee whistled a penalty for OM. HE simply snatched the ball from the hands of Alexis Sanchez, before transforming it with cold blood. Lecomte had started from the right side but the strike from the middle was perfect. That didn’t stop his coach from taking him out before the hour mark.
255
Dimitri Payet played his 255th match with OM in L1, becoming the club’s third most capped player in the top flight since Opta collected this data (1947-1948), behind Steve Mandanda (469) and Roger Scotti ( 308).
