OM finished off their harvest with another three points at the end of August. A victory that Sochaux tried to stop right up to the death, but Mandanda was in outstanding form.
2-0 Koné (60th)
2-1 Erding (72nd)
Lorik Cana and his teammates knew who to thank. As soon as the final whistle went they all jumped on Steve Mandanda. The recognised the role he played in OM’s third win in a row in the League. Right to the death, the former Le Havre player pulled off some miracle saves to keep the Sochaux side from scoring.
« He’s a monster », complimented Mamadou Niang, when speaking to Omtv after the match.
In the absence of Ben Arfa, the playmaking was left up to Ziani, Zenden started on the left wing, positioned a little deeper than Koné, who was on the right.
Towards the end of the first half, OM changed to a 4-4-2 with Koné and Niang up front.
Moments earlier, Mandanda pulled off a fantastic reflex save from an Erding header. A stop that could be compared to the one « Gordon Banks » pulled off from Pele, just to give those of you who have not seen the save an idea of his exploit. This wasn’t a one off save either, the keeper saving his side on two other occasions during the second half.
OM suffered a particularly difficult end to the match. Stressful, as the last few minutes of Wednesday’s game were, before Niang’s second goal against Brann. « That just means that we are still not like Lyon, who can calmly finish up their matches. We have to learn the lessons from these final 20 minutes. It’s things like this we must not repeat », said Erik Gerets, speaking to OMtv.
The turning point of the game was the Sochaux goal. When Erding, who was a good metre offside, fired past Mandanda, the OM heartbeats accelerated. Up until then the team had appeared to be coasting towards a comfortable win. Karim Ziani scored the first goal with an individual effort, which is always good for breaking the deadlock. The Algerian slid in from the right and then took Richert by surprise by shooting suddenly. The keeper could do nothing to stop the ball going in (1-0, 39th).
Nor could he do anything about the volley fired in by Koné after Niang played him in after an hour of the game (2-0). The reshuffle that put the Ivory Coast player up front alongside the Senegal star in a 4-4-2 formation paid off.
OM took all three points again, points which just keep rolling in at the startr of a season that is completely different from it’s predecessor. Marseille can go to sleep this evening as leaders of the L1, waiting to see if OL (away to St Etienne on Sunday) can come level with them. OM can recharge their batteries in all serenity during the coming break.
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