Exceptional OM, exceptional scenario: With 10 men throughout the match, punished by a penalty and trailing after an hour of play, OM still managed to beat Lyon 3-2 on their home ground on Sunday at the end of a breathtaking match.
4 mins
Where to start? The goals, the refereeing decisions, the twists and turns, the revenge of the banned Pol Lirola, Ulisse Garcia or Rayan Cherki?
Or perhaps by the crazy joy of Fabrizio Ravanelli, former great striker of OM and Italy and now ambassador of the Marseille club, who came to embrace everyone at the final whistle, starting with the coach Roberto De Zerbi.
A little over 45 minutes earlier, the atmosphere was not festive in the Marseille camp. A red card after five minutes and a penalty that they would have liked to see cancelled for an offside by Alexandre Lacazette, it was indeed too much for the Provençaux. At half-time, Mehdi Benatia, advisor to Marseille president Pablo Longoria, went to tell Mr Bastien all the bad things he thought about his whistles.
” It’s not possible. There are too many questionable things about the first half and the whole game. ” he explained to the microphone of the broadcaster DAZN.
Because this crazy match started with an ultra-fast expulsion, that of Leonardo Balerdi, which further weakened the already very vulnerable Marseille defense. It was for his only two fouls, one indisputable from the 15th second and the other obtained with experience and malice by Lacazette, clinging to the Argentinian’s jersey from the start of the action.
Lacazette spoils
From then on, the tantalising clash that had been announced turned into an attack-defence and it very quickly seemed impossible that OM would hold on.
Behind everywhere and with a tinkered hinge put to the test on each deep ball, OM suffered terribly with a Gift Orban overhead kick on the bar (10th), a one-on-one won by Geronimo Rulli in front of the Nigerian (14th) or a last-minute save by Valentin Rongier after an action by Corentin Tolisso (19th).
Above all, the Marseille goalkeeper pushed back a penalty from Lacazette (45+3), who missed the opportunity to score his first goal of the season. Rulli saved his second penalty of the season, confirming a certain Argentinian know-how in this area.
At half-time, despite the activity of a Matic-Tolisso midfielder who is certainly not the liveliest in L1 but who knows where to put the ball, Lyon had therefore not managed to trap OM and its beautiful line of six, as wide as a big stroke of orange highlighter with its fluorescent jerseys.
The lofters shine
But Lyon quickly found the opening, thanks to a beautiful header from Duje Caleta-Car, the former Marseille player (1-0, 55th). But then, once in front, with 11 against 10, how did Lyon manage to lose this match?
In a rather irrational way, OM came back thanks to forgotten players, Pol Lirola and Ulisse Garcia, the unlikely heroes of the evening.
The Spanish full-back, who returned to Marseille after two lackluster loan seasons on the right and left, first scored (69th, 1-1), before serving Garcia, who left the Marseille loft just three weeks ago, for the 2-1 goal (82nd).
Another “lofteur”, Rayan Cherki, then brought OL back to 2-2 in added time (90+3) and the matter seemed settled: this mind-blowing match would end at 2-2. But there was still a little reserve of madness on the Marseille side: on the kick-off, the Englishman Jonathan Rowe went off alone and sent off a magnificent strike to deceive Lucas Perri and offer his team the craziest of victories (3-2, 90+5).
” I am very happy to have seen this mentality, in the duels, in the desire to go and win at 2-2 “, explained Marseille coach Roberto De Zerbi.
After such a spectacle, we almost forgot the ranking: OM is ahead (2nd) and is keeping pace with Paris SG, leader, and Monaco (3rd) with 13 points. Lyon, for its part, is falling back and only appears in 14th place.