Having lost these two points, having slipped up on the march towards the podium is more than annoying. It’s infuriating. It could and maybe should have been a calm end to the afternoon, troubled only by the blood chilling wind. OM did, for half an hour, take a simple road.
Simple in the good sense of the word. Didier Deschamps’s players started off in the best manner, first of all by informing their opponents that they would not be generous hosts, that they wouldn’t have much to chew on. Unfortunately, the sole, almost, chance that Lorient had was enough to make the difference, but we will come back to that.
OM themselves had a whole host of chances throughout the encounter. Not half chances, but plenty of shots on goal (18 to 4), and two refused penalty shouts for Bonnart and Cissé.
Through this they, logically, went in front, and at the best possible time. Mamadou Niang making up for a missed one on one after a sublime pass from Lucho (15’) firing in a left foot effort after a perfect cross from Bonnart (42’). The Argentine international was once again involved in the move, playing the full back in down the flank.
Armed with the same intentions, starting with the desire to quickly build up the gap, Marseille had two fantastic chances just after the restart. Valbuena came up short against Audard, and Diawara was unable to hit the target when ideally positioned (our photo).
No break but an incontestable domination. And then, like a fly in an otherwise tasty soup, came a free-kick. Far out, almost insignificant. Vahirua hit it hard and cleanly. When it dropped, the ball hit the post before falling at the feet of the lucky Koscielny, who hit the equaliser (64’). Unhoped for by Lorient and therefore extremely annoying for OM.
Things had changed, from simple to complicated, especially as Deschamps had been forced to replace Niang (with an injury to his foot, see elsewhere) with Brandao earlier than planned.
Happily enough, Ben Arfa seemed to be in form on Sunday night and made great waves down the left flank, flying past Sosa and Bourillon, as well as stinging Audard’s gloves. Not selfish, he also played the role of provider, playing in a perfect pass for Valbuena, in the 70th minute, for what should have been the winning goal. The former Libourne player did not turn his nose up at the chance, but somehow was unable to hit the target.
This was a sign that OM’s great run (4 victories in a row in the Ligue 1) was coming to an end. Even if the only thing that we could reproach the OM side of was a little clumsiness in front of goal, the disappointment almost turned into a real setback. Gameiro missing out on a killer chance in second half stoppage time, a goal which would have been quite unfair. The bill of this undeserved 1-1 result was already expensive enough. This Lorient side have over the last four years (2 victories and 2 draws) have taken a wicked pleasure in tripping up this Marseille team.

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