After a sparkling first quarter of an hour, Olympique de Marseille gradually died out against FC Nantes reduced to 10 and conceded a 1-1 draw on Friday at the opening of the 4th day of Ligue 1 at the Beaujoire stadium . Provisionally leading Ligue 1 with a one-point lead over Monaco, OM have yet to meet all the expectations created by ambitious attacking recruitment. Carried by a sharp Vitinha, the Olympians made a perfect start to the match by opening the scoring quickly through Sarr, and then played on the numerical superiority for 80 minutes.
These seductive beginnings turned out to be a flash in the pan. Marcelino’s men gradually sank into a rough game, and allowed FC Nantes, however lacking in confidence, to regain momentum and equalize thanks to their Egyptian striker Mostafa Mohamed, now top scorer in the championship tied with Monegasque Wissam Ben Yedder (4 goals).
“We stopped playing,” Marcelino lamented after the game. “We thought the match was over [after the expulsion, editor’s note]. »
With two defeats and two draws, the accounting result is not brilliant after four days for the players of Pierre Aristouy, fifteenth in the championship. But Nantes can boast, as against Monaco last week (3-3), of having bent without breaking against a team far superior on paper and in a boiling context. “It’s an important match, an important point given the way it went,” said the FC Nantes coach after the draw.
In an incandescent Beaujoire, led by a Loire stand over-motivated by recent conflicts with the club’s management, it was nevertheless OM who made Nantes live a hellish first quarter of an hour, suffocated by each offensive and multiplying the losses of the ball on the suffocating pressing of the visitors.
A first ball in the area for Vitinha set fire to the Canaries defense (1st), before Chancel Mbemba hit over the bar when he was unmarked (2nd). On a new huge opportunity, Vitinha then came up against Descamps (3rd).
A minute later, Descamps again repelled a shot from Vitinha, but Ismaila Sarr took charge of a powerful shot to put the ball in the back of the net (4th). It was then the young Bastien Meupiyou, 17 years old and propelled holder for the first time in his career, who cracked with a gross foul on Sarr in front of his surface as the last defender, logically receiving a red (9th). Reduced to 10, the Nantes residents still suffered for long minutes, before raising their heads, in particular thanks to Merlin, active on his left side, against the Marseillais who lowered the intensity a notch.
Back-to-goal control, half-turn and perfect shot: center-forward Mostafa Mohamed, who already scored twice against Monaco last week, once again scored for the equalizing goal (39th).
Like the Argentinian Joaquin Correa, not very incisive for his first start, the Olympians often lacked precision when they returned from the locker room, obtaining few serious chances in the second period. It was in the last quarter of an hour, one-way, that the Marseillais proved to be dangerous again, Aubameyang missing the target (90 4) at the end of the match.
