1st Team

Salzburg 1-0 OM: OM fall in Austria

Posted by
Frédéric Rostain
On Thursday 28 September 2017 at 10:20

Taking place in between games against Toulouse and Nice, this match in Salzburg forced Rudi Garcia to make changes to his starting lineup. The first surprise came after seeing the game sheet, of the 21 players selected, three had to watch the match from the stands. And for the second day of Pool I, there were three regulars whose names were not present on the game sheet: Steve Mandanda, Hiroki Sakai and Dimitri Payet. Then, compared to Marseille's last outing last Sunday against Toulouse FC, the Olympien coach made seven changes. Pelé, Sarr, Evra, Kamara, Lopez, Sanson and Germain took up the positions of Mandanda, Sakai, Amavi, Zambo Anguissa, Payet, Ocampos and Njie.
This OM lineup, almost completely turned upside down, started the game well despite no opportunities on both sides during the first quarter hour. Rudi Garcia's men then took control of the game, depriving the Austrians of the ball but they still had the best opportunities from the first half. A downward header by Miranda forced Pelé to make a beautiful display with his hands to prevent a goal. Then the Marseille goalkeeper got the ball out of the box by Dabbur, who shot a strike into the empty goal but fortunately Rami had followed suit to stop it on the goal line. The Olympiens had only two real opportunities: a shot from Thauvin turned into a corner by Walke and a free-kick from Sanson just before half-time.

The trend reversed in the second half. The Austrians increased their playing level by putting in more speed and commitment. Pelé saved his partners several times while Thauvin, on a free-kick, and Lopez especially chance their luck from afar, but in vain. Always more daring, Marco Rose's players finally open the scoring with a centre back shot from Lainer for Dabbur who gets past the Marseille goalkeeper and scores (1-0, 73' ).
Following this, Rudi Garcia makes three changes over a few minutes. Njie, Zambo Anguissa and then, for his first time sporting the OM jersey, Mitroglou came into play. The Austrians continued confidently to push and undermine the Olympien defense. Sarr broke through the visitors' defense but could not get the shot in during the last minute.

OM accept defeat for the first time of this European championship and lose its leading position in Group I of the Europa League, in favour of their winning opponents.

Update on Group I

2 nd day: 28 September
Salzburg 1-0 OM
Konyaspor 2-1 Vitoria Guimaraes

Rankings

1/ Salzburg: 4 points
2/ Konyaspor: 3 points
3/ OM: 3 points
4 Vitoria Guimaraes: 1 point

3 rd day: 19 October at 7pm

OM-Vitoria Guimaraes
Konyaspor-Salzburg