This time, Olympique de Marseille has no reason to complain. After a start marked by a tumultuous relationship with the referee, the Phocaeans made peace with the Champions League against Newcastle (2-1), despite being 6th in the league phase at kick-off. Just 25th, one place and one point from the final qualifying spot for the playoffs before today’s 5th day, Marseillais have relaunched their European campaign.
OM took the opportunity to end a streak of 17 defeats in their previous 17 confrontations against Big 4 clubs in C1, which stretches back to 2012. Vélodrome had to wait a period and two goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (46, 50) for victory to take shape.
It was hard not to feel overwhelmed by the impressive tifo displayed by the Marseille supporters as the players entered. It was also difficult to hold back England’s wave at the start of the game. A yellow card from Leonardo Balerdi (3rd) and a save from Pierre-Emile Höjbjerg (4th) set the tone. In contrast to Marseille’s defense, Harvey Barnes made a deflected cross to deceive Geronimo Rulli (1-0, 6).
Unexpected angle
The Marseillais had not yet entered their game, but they reacted. Often found brilliantly by Mason Greenwood, Aubameyang worried Nick Pope on several occasions, without quite getting it right. For his first start with OM after seven games ended in Ligue 1, young Darryl Bakola (17) was also less clear when he was warned to simulate in the area (36).
But the midfielder made up for it after returning from the dressing room by launching Aubameyang, more than twice his age, who did the rest. While the opposing goalkeeper made a difficult play, the Gabonese beat him before scoring from an unexpected angle, to the right of the England area (46).
The striker again performed well to cut Timothy Weah’s cross four minutes later (2-1). Despite pressure from their future opponents Paris, the Marseillais continued to improve their points tally to 6 points in C1 and put themselves back in the race for the play-offs. With three days remaining, they are in 19th place pending Wednesday’s game. Finally, Roberto De Zerbi’s players performed better than PSG last season in the same period.
