Couple Lucas Michel
Published 3 minutes ago, Updated now
Chancel Mbemba stole the show from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang this Thursday. REUTERS / Stephanie Lecocq / REUTERS / Manon Cruz
The brilliant inspiration of Mbemba, the new goal of Scamacca but also the failures of Aubameyang, find the tops and flops of OM-Atalanta (1-1).
TOPS
Mbemba falls just in time
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is definitely not the only “Mr. Europa” at OM. His defense friend, Chancel Mbemba, stole the show by reviving the Olympians against Atalanta this Thursday (1-1). All of this is a brilliant inspiration from the half-pipe, worthy of an attacking midfielder in full confidence (20th). His fourth goal of the season in C3, at the best of times for someone whose return from injury is decidedly timely. Before that, he had been beaten in the duel to open the score before regaining his rhythm and his taste for combat. The Congolese even came close to the double after a failed exit from the opposing goalkeeper (55th).
Inevitable Scamacca
He was expected, he responded very quickly. Ten minutes, the time it took Gianluca Scamacca to silence the fiery Vélodrome, with an unstoppable cross strike (11th). At the beginning and conclusion of an action that he himself had created from scratch, of putting his back to the game before letting go (easily) of Murillo. A permanent threat up front but also in the midfield, where he brought his size and his knowledge of duels, the Italian scored his 9th goal in two months, all after having already defeated Liverpool at Anfield (0-3). And he won his goalscoring duel with Aubameyang (see below).
Read also Europa League: held in check by Atalanta, OM can believe in it before the return
Kondogbia into a father
Evening captain in the absence of suspended Samuel Gigot, Geoffrey Kondogbia lived up to his status. His sense of combat was invaluable against the technical finesse of the Atalanta midfielder. Not necessarily left out in the field (85% of successful passes), the former Atlético player could have taken his performance to another dimension if his pure strike had passed under Musso’s bar and not into the net on the corner North (59th).
FLOPS
Aubameyang’s failures
An evening to forget for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. So clinical for several months, a strong man and symbol of OM’s continental campaign, the Gabonese will have harvested this Thursday. Always generous in effort and untenable in wide open spaces, the former Arsenal player sometimes missed his “Madjer” (34th), his volley (36th) but also his cross shot (42nd). No more return after the break, with a timid volley (47th) then a curling shot sent into the North bend (53rd). At his side, his partner Ismaila Sarr was hardly more successful. Less visible up front, the Senegalese will have procrastinated too much in the area (48th) before believing in the goal of the deliverance (64th), refused for offside just before his exit.
Musso hardly inspired
The score imperfectly tells the performance of the Bergamo rearguard. The Olympian failures a little more. And for good reason, the visitors’ defense was constantly found wanting in depth, while its goalkeeper Juan Musso came close to disaster on several occasions. Already passive, but above all powerless on the inspiration of Mbemba, the doorman of the Dea made his defenders break into a cold sweat, like this failed exit from a corner (55th). A minute later, the Argentinian came out of his goal almost for no reason, almost failing to give Clauss a goal (56th). Worse, his panic when resisting Moumbagna’s pressure a good thirty meters from his goals (74th), each time without consequence, miraculously.
