The final remains in sight and, given the difficulties encountered during the evening, it is ultimately the essential. Olympique de Marseille was beaten 3-2, Thursday, April 28, in Rotterdam (Netherlands) by Feyenoord, in the semi-final first leg of the Europa League Conference, a score which can still allow the Marseillais to win a sixth European final.
Arrived in the Netherlands with a series of ten victories in eleven matches, OM fell from quite a height. The last French representatives in Europe, the Marseillais were probably hoping for another result, but they were too weak defensively in a match that saw two teams playful in front and generous behind.
From the start, Feyenoord put a lot of intensity, in the wake of a furious pre-match, where the De Kuip stadium was transformed into a gigantic open-air nightclub before being covered in smoke from dozens of torches lit by Dutch and Marseille supporters. To trap the opposing defense, Jorge Sampaoli had bet, in attack, on the speed of Cédric Bakambu and especially Bamba Dieng, rather than on Milik, again returned to the bench. The plan could have worked from the outset but the young Senegalese, twice launched deep, missed the opportunity twice, first by stumbling over Marciano (8and) then hitting next to it (14and).
But apart from these two actions, the Marseillais suffered terribly and on each breakthrough of the Feyenoord attack, like the two Dutch goals scored in two minutes. At the 18and minute, it was first Cyriel Dessers who opened the scoring after an assist from Luis Sinisterra in a backheel (1-0). The Colombian winger, his team’s best player, then scored the second goal on his own, with a deflected shot from Rongier (2-0, 20and).
The Caleta-Car dumpling
Marseille was then far from Tirana and the final of May 25, carried away by the fury of the stadium where David Trezeguet had offered Euro 2000 to the Blues with a golden goal. But when they were really asphyxiated, Dimitri Payet and his family found some air on a nice Collective action concluded by Dieng with a shot from the right (2-1, 28and). At the time, the Dutch hinge his goalkeeper left doubtful. The impression was confirmed ten minutes later with the Marseille equalizer. Starting from Gerson, the movement resulted in a recovery from the Brazilian, irresistible at the moment, after going through Payet and Guendouzi, via a bad intervention by goalkeeper Marciano (2-2, 40and).
OM had come out of the storm but the Provençaux recovered on their own from the difficulty with an incredible blunder by defender Duje Caleta-Car from the start of the second period. Like a bad gift for Steve Mandanda’s hundredth European outing with OM, the Croatian sent his goalkeeper a soft and completely missed back pass. Dessers intercepted it and put Feyernoord back in front (3-2, 46and). With this double and eleven goals in total, the Belgian-Nigerian striker dominates the ranking of scorers in the competition
OM had a little trouble recovering from this absurd third goal and what followed was sometimes the same thing, with terrible defensive fears, born of the incredible feverishness of Caleta-Car and Luan Peres. There were a few attacking thrills too, with Dieng missing two more great opportunities to equalize, and Harit getting into the game well. At the end of the match, Marciano then Mandanda each made a decisive save but the score did not move.
“At this stage of the tournament, you can’t go wrong and stay asphyxiated, conceded the Argentinian coach of OM, Jorge Sampaoli. It was hard and the frustration of not being able to play led to mistakes. It’s a learning curve for the future and the return match. »
The name of the finalist will be decided on Thursday in Marseille, to know who will face Leicester or the Italians of Roma (the two teams drew 1-1 in England). He will miss the Virage Nord, closed by UEFA after several incidents this season, but the Vélodrome will, in turn, have its role to play. Before that, Marseille must receive Lyon on Sunday. The appointment is no less important. Because OM want to keep their second place and return to Europe next season, the big Champions League, the C1, and no longer the C4 that they are eyeing until at least next week.
