The duel for the Champions League will stretch further, perhaps until the end of the championship: first led, OM logically beat the red lantern Angers on Sunday (3-1) during the 35th day , thus returning to two lengths behind Lens and the coveted second place.
“We are not going to let go,” Mattéo Guendouzi promised on Friday a few hours before seeing Lens overturn a badly fitted match against Reims (2-1). It will take that for OM, because the Sang et Or are carried by a very strong dynamic, but the Marseillais did their part of the job on Sunday and the fight continues.
Three days before the end, Lens remains two steps ahead of OM, who on the other hand took advantage of Monaco’s draw against Lille (0-0) to almost secure the podium: with an eight-point margin on the team. of the Principality and upcoming matches against Lille, Brest and Ajaccio, OM should at least see the third preliminary round of the next Champions League.
To achieve its goals on Sunday, the Provençal club still had to work and needed everyone. The recent appearances of Dimitri Payet and Mattéo Guendouzi, against Auxerre and Lens, had done OM a lot of good and the two men were rewarded with a return to the starting 11, very attacking on Sunday.
For Payet, it had been a long time – at the beginning of March against Annecy in the Cup – and the Marseille N.10 attacked the match with a wolf’s hunger, playing all the shots, hitting all the set pieces.
Payet annoyed scorer
The first two big chances were also for him (5th and 6th minutes) and Marseille then seemed well launched. But after 15 very big minutes, the men of Igor Tudor died out a bit, placed very high indeed, but without much rhythm or speed.
Relegated for a long time but better recently, Angers took advantage of it by playing a counter to perfection, Himad Abdelli launching Abdallah Sima in depth for an easily won duel against Pau Lopez, passive (1-0, 28th).
Marseille then had the merit of reacting very quickly and equalizing immediately, with a recovery from the toe of Alexis Sanchez, who left in perfect timing on a very good cross from Jonathan Clauss (1-1, 34th).
After the break, OM then quickly took the lead thanks to Payet (2-1, 48th), who scored from the right on a pass from Sanchez after superb work from Ruslan Malinovskyi, who was nevertheless going through a very dig.
The Marseille captain then left,
replaced by Vitinha, and he didn’t seem very happy about it. While a suspension probably awaits him for his slap on Yannick Cahuzac during the match in Lens and doubt hangs over the rest of his career, his every move and word will now be watched in Marseille.
Then, OM ended the game quite painfully but still managed to take cover thanks to a penalty from Jordan Veretout after a handball from Sima (3-1, 77th). The three points acquired, Marseille can now turn to its trip to Lille on Saturday. The next day, Lens will go to Lorient for the rest of the duel.
