1st Team

Vitória 1-0 OM: OM accept defeat in Portugal

Posted by
Frédéric Rostain
On Saturday 4 November 2017 at 07:20

As usual for Europa League matches, Rudi Garcia made big changes to his team. Compared to the success in Lille last Sunday, only four players were once again on the first team: Mandanda, Rami, Gustavo and Sanson. The rotation is therefore not unusual for the Marseille manager who had Sunday's home game against Caen at the back of his mind.
The encounter takes a rather long time to get started. Despite contributions from the Olympien sides and the combination of the reliable Njie-Sanson-Lopez trio, it's not until the first half-hour that the first shot is taken. An attempt by Njie. Gustavo also tried his luck from a distance, but without success. The first half, rather bleak until then, picked up the pace in the last five minutes with three opportunties. The first for the Portuguese. After a nice combination, Martins' strike was blocked by Kamara. The other two opportunities were for OM. A collective effort brought the ball into the opposing goal area and after a header from Germain, Njie missed out on scoring. The next minute, following a centre kick by Amavi, Sanson could not get within reach of the ball's path in time. Both teams returned to the changing room with a score of 0-0.

The first twenty minutes of the second half were completely for OM. They had everything: command and control of the game as well as many opportunities. The most important was down to Njie, after a nice interception by Gustavo, but the Cameroonian international tried to score against the Guimaraes goalkeeper...The ball was cleared by the defence. The Portuguese counterattack in the 64 th minute concluded with a long-range effort onto the bar by Martins, turning the game around in the second half. From that moment on, the Olympiens suffered while the home team gained in confidence. Raphinha tried his luck in the goal area but the Olympien goalie managed to kick it back.
The arrivals of Thauvin, followed by Sakai, which allowed Sarr to play higher, was meant to add even more support for the Marseille forwards. But ten minutes from the end, Heldon sent a perfect centre kick for Hurtado's head who was aiming at Mandanda. Rudi Garcia then decided to go for broke with Mitroglou coming into play. Despite a team strongly focused on attack with Njie, Germain, Sarr and Mitroglou, but reduced to ten after Kamara was sent off due to his second yellow card, the Olympiens failed to score and no doubt regret the missed chances at the end of the first half.

In the rankings, after the defeat, OM remain in second place but sees Vitoria and Konyaspor come back to two lengths

Info on Group !
4th day

Vitória 1-0 OM
Salzbourg 0-0 Konyaspor

Ranking

1/ Salzbourg: 8 points
2/ OM: 6 points
3/ Vitoria: 4 points
4/ Konyaspor: 4 points

5th day: Thursday, 23rd November at 7pm

Konyaspor-OM
Salzbourg- Vitória

6 th day: Thursday, 7th December at 9:05 pm

OM-Salzbourg
Vitória-Konyaspor