1st Team

OM 5-0 Caen: OM relish the occasion!

Posted by
Frédéric Rostain
On Sunday 5 November 2017 at 09:43

Against Caen, in addition to just achieving a victory, OM also wanted to erase the memory of last Thursday's lost Europa League match in Portugal and the incident involving Patrice Evra and a handful of supporters during the warm up. Mission accomplished. The Olympiens came away with all three points from this encounter with the early season's surprise team, SM Caen. Rudi Garcia's men created multiple chances in the first half. It all began in the fifth minute with a ball in from Amavi to Thauvin, who was off target with his left-foot volley. For a period of almost forty minutes, the Marseille players kept trying to make a breakthrough against the men from Normandy, both in open play and from set pieces. Mitroglou, Sakai, Sanson, Ocampos, Thauvin… few are the OM players who did not try a shot on goal. But Vercoutre was having an outstanding evening, or at least a great first half. The Caen keeper managed to keep everything out, which amounted to more than around a dozen shots in total, right up till the 43rd minute. During a mix up in the Caen area, an initial shot from Thauvin was first blocked; Mitroglou and Ocampos then got in each other's way trying to regain the ball; and finally, Gustavo broke through and struck to open the scoring.
Phew! Having spent virtually the whole half being denied by a very on form Vercoutre, Marseille ended up finding the opening at the very best time to score, just before the break, through their Brazilian midfielder, who scored his third goal in Ligue 1.

Steve Mandanda's teammates made the most of the upper hand they'd gained at the end of the first period by really driving home their advantage shortly after they came back out. In the 47th minute, during an OM attack, and after Sanson had been blocked and Mitroglou had missed his subsequent volley,Thauvin was there to double the score. After the initial blow of the first goal, the Caen players now suffered a second that really took the wind out of their sails. Then five minutes later, from a corner initially cleared by the Caen defense, Sanson collected the ball on the corner of the area and fired a hard shot towards the near post. Vercoutre, caught by surprise, was unable to stop the ball. So that made it three for OM, who had thus just sent a clear message to their opponents that they would be taking no points from the Orange Vélodrome this Sunday.
Marseille continued to dominate the exchanges, even though Patrice Garande's players' attempted to plug the holes. Mitroglou still managed to successfully score with a header from a very good cross by Thauvin. The man from Orléans even got a second before ceding his place to Lopez.

OM achieve a comprehensive win without conceding a goal in their 12th Ligue 1 match of the season, a clear victory that sees them rise to third in the table.