Despite the disappointment at the end of the match against Nancy (2-2), the OM players, in terms of their style of play, have a lot to be happy with. But they also intend to learn their lessons from their experience at Valenciennes last Sunday.

The match against Nancy on Sunday night will certainly have left the Olympiens with some regrets. Having dominated for the first hour, OM scored 2 goals and it could easily have been several more. Indeed, on top of the goals from Mamadou Niang and Djibril Cissé, OM created numerous chances such as Karim Ziani’s shot that was blocked by Puygrenier, Djibril Cissé’s lob that went centimetres wide and Mamadou Niang’s header. “We were solid in every department for one hour. Sure, we could have scored more than 2 goals, but it’s not bad,” opined Julien Rodriguez. So the first half was in fact physically and technically controlled by OM, whose fans got right behind them at the Vélodrome.

Unfortunately, the last half an hour saw the match turn in favour of Pablo Correa’s men. Their first goal was a real turning point for the Nancy side; after it, they showed a different side of their game against an OM outfit that was on its guard and which, slowly but surely, pulled further and further back. “We needed to be tougher at the back to stop them from clawing their way back into the game. We weren’t hanging onto the ball well at all and there were incessant attacks raining down on us. We had a small lapse in concentration and conceded the equaliser,” regrets the OM defender.

The need to “kill off” the match

“The penalty turned the match. Mentally, we started to tell ourselves we were “only” one goal in front. Then, we left too much to chance. We have to take fewer risks. You always have to pay attention, even if it means you don’t play quite so well,” adds Lorik Cana who, with almost the last touch of the ball, came close to giving OM the 3 points. Unfortunately, his looping header hit the crossbar, then Bracigliano’s back and then the post… “It’s a shame but you can’t rely on something like that to kill off the match. That makes 2 lessons we learned, along with the match against Valenciennes , where we also should have held onto our lead.”

Despite the final score and OM’s resulting place on the table after 4 rounds, the physiognomy of the match contained some encouraging signs for the rest of the season, with the returns of Samir Nasri and Mamadou Niang. “He scored and created opportunities. Samir linked up play and distributed excellent balls. We need them. They gave 100%,” continued the Albanian midfielder.

“We’re not going to give up, it’s the start of the season,” says Julien Rodriguez, “we’re having a slow start but we’ll work hard to prepare for out trip to Caen. We need to really push ourselves to get this win.”
Lorik Cana, never short of a massive effort on the pitch, was the first to let out a war cry after the final whistle: “I think we have the means to bounce back; and bounce back we must.”