Olympique de Marseille, four days before the first leg of the Europa League semi-final against Atalanta, defeated Lens (2:1) at the Stade Vélodrome and climbed from ninth to seventh place in Ligue 1, at the end of Sunday 31.E daytime.
Pape Gueye scored the winning goal in the 85th minuteE minute, fell from the sky at a time when OM had his head under water. It was offered generously by the Sang et Or in a disastrous recovery: an easy recovery from Gueye, a relay from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, still decisive, and the Senegalese midfielder fooled Brice Samba (2-1).
Vélodrome then sang very loudly as if he wanted to warm up his voice for Thursday night. As OM will host Atalanta in the semi-final first leg of the Europa League, buoyed by this success that will keep them alive in the championship, they have the right to believe in their chances against the Italians.
An affordable championship dream final
Jean-Louis Gasset and his team promised not to choose between Ligue 1 and the Europa League and they kept their promise, as did Aubameyang and Jordan Veretout, who stayed on the pitch until the end and finished without blood.
Now they can fully focus on the double confrontation with Atalanta. The Championship will only return after that, with three games in hand – Reims, Lorient and Le Havre – to hope to improve their standings, who are now 7th.E two lengths from their sacrifice today.
On Sunday, OM also had an excellent first half hour, the best in a very long time. The score was even more embellished by the opening score, which came before the end of the first minute of the game, when Aubameyang volleyed a cross to Iliman Ndiaye (1:0).
Gabon, the author on the occasion of his 14E The goal of the season in the championship, like Leonardo Balerdi, is one of Gasset’s essentials, and when he stayed on the ground for a long time in the 29th.E minute all of Marseille stopped breathing at the thought of Thursday and Atalanta.
A goal that changes (almost) everything
Veretout had another important thing on the 21stE minute great opportunity to double the counterattack, OM then found a lot of space behind midfielder Lensois, but the game remained open, especially with Florian Sotoca’s header on Pau Lopez’s post (38E).
But time was very long for the Marseillais after the break as they retreated and found it increasingly difficult to mask the obvious physical wear and tear on some. Quite logically, Franck Hais’ men eventually came back thanks to Wesley Saïd’s header after Massadio Haïdar’s perfect cross (1-1, 77E). But while OM’s championship seemed almost over, Gueye’s goal revived Marseille in the race for European places.
This goal showed that if this year’s OM are undoubtedly not a very great team, they have courage. And a month on from the end of this exercise where everything went wrong, he is a semi-finalist in the Europa League and still has a lot to achieve in the Championship. It wasn’t obvious.