OM have taken out an option on their qualification for the Champions League, winning 1-0 in Bergen, in the preliminary round first leg game.
OM were ready for their European rendez-vous, managing to break down a Norwegian side that were physical, combative and well grouped, with an attacking movement of great class. In the 40th minute, Hatem Ben Arfa blew the Brann defence apart before pulling the ball back for Benoît Cheyrou who’s inspired backheel offered Marseille the victory (0-1, 40th).
A goal scored with great finesse, in stark contrast to the roughness of the Brann Bergen side.
The goal is a very important for the rest of the contest, scored with the main chance of the first half. Before that, Opdal had to push away a powerful effort from the same Cheyrou, but hadn’t had to deal with anything within his own penalty area.
In the second half, Eric Gerets brought on Kaboré for Cana.
It has to be said that Eirik Bakke and his team-mates were not worried about getting stuck in in order to repulse the danger, or, if needed, committing fouls before things got too worrying for them.
The big Scandinavian players formed a solid block, but were also very rapid when they counter attacked. So much so that Steve Mandanda, on a number of occasions, had to rush out to snuff out their attacks. At the same time the central defensive pairing of Hilton and Zubar reassured their team-mates.
At half time, Kaboré came on for Cana in a midfield that had been reinforced since the game against Rennes (in a midfield trio with M’Bami & Cheyrou). The Albanian international had picked up a knock to his foot in the first half.
In this new configuration, the work put in by Kaboré was very precious in the recuperation of the ball. A number of his interventions were very important. What is more important is that the midfield kept their hold on the game.
A control over a game which was graced by the sublime touches of Ben Arfa. Apart from his efforts which led to the goal, the former OL player showed his skill on a number of occasions, even though the tackles were raining down on him. He seemed almost indifferent to the attention being shown to him.
Up front, Demba and Niang made a nuisance of themselves and came close to scoring at the hour mark. Niang was then replaced by Djibril Cissé, for the last 10 minutes. An end to the game which just increased in rhythm.
The Norwegians were pushing forward a lot more an OM started taking advantage of the newfound space. They even had two chances to double their lead. One, from a Cissé free kick which was deflected by the wall and came close to catching out Opdal completely. The keeper was then beaten by a Zubar header (from a cross played in by Ben Arfa). But, yet again, the ball was not on target.
Two great chances, which the Marseille players nearly regretted when Moen stepped up to fire in a free kick that was ideally placed in the last minute. Luckily it only grazed the top of the crossbar and didn’t change OM’s lead before the return leg in two weeks time.
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