Valenciennes 2-1 OM: OM goes down in Valenciennes
15/08/07 - Valenciennes 2-1 OM
OM conceded its first defeat of the season on Wednesday evening in Valenciennes. The Olympiens did however open the scoring, through Karim Ziani, in the 57th minute.
VALENCIENNES 2-1 OM
1-1 Savidan (62e)
2-1 Savidan (87e)
The Olympiens hadn’t scored so far this season until, on the hour mark, Karim Ziani got on the end of a perfectly cut-back cross from Benoît Cheyrou after a fine run from Mathieu Valbuena. They thought they had cracked the match open, especially as they hadn’t conceded a single goal so far in the season, but this idea was quickly stamped out when Steve Savidan equalised (62’). The goal was a blow to the heart of the Olympiens, who had been looking down the barrel of their first win of season 2007-08.
Photo La Provence
The action took just 5 minutes to get under way, despite the first half finishing 0-0, starting with a fantastic save from Cédric Carrasso right on the goal line from an Ouaddou header (6’), trouble in the air from set pieces and a hand ball from Doumeng that should have been punished with a penalty for OM (25’).
Once the first 2 goals were scored, the game could easily have gone in favour of the Olympiens; notably through a fine run down the right from Djibril Cissé followed by an excellent cross for Benoît Cheyrou, who angled his header across the face of goal (70’). And no-one will forget the alert in the 83rd minute, when Cédric Carrasso prevailed in a one-on-one with Grégory Pujol.
But the alert turned into disaster 3 minutes from time. From a free kick played indirectly, Steve Savidan won his side the match with a thundering strike into the back of the net (2-1).
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72'
28'
61'
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87'
72'
