Olympique de Marseille Draws 1-1 with FC Nantes: Match Recap and Analysis

2023-09-01 21:59:36

After a sparkling first quarter of an hour, Olympique de Marseille gradually died out once morest FC Nantes reduced to 10 and conceded a 1-1 draw on Friday at the start of the 4th day of Ligue 1 at the Beaujoire stadium. .

Provisionally leader of Ligue 1 with a point lead over Monaco, OM have not yet met all the expectations created by ambitious attacking recruitment.

Carried by a sharp Vitinha, the Olympians made a perfect start to the match by quickly opening the scoring thanks to Sarr, and then played on the numerical superiority for 80 minutes.

These seductive beginnings turned out to be a flash in the pan. Marcelino’s men gradually sank into a rough game, and allowed FC Nantes, however lacking in confidence, to regain momentum and equalize thanks to their Egyptian striker Mostafa Mohamed, now top scorer in the championship tied with Monegasque Wissam Ben Yedder (4 goals).

“We stopped playing” regretted Marcelino following the match. “We thought the match was over” (following the expulsion).

With two defeats and two draws, the accounting result is not brilliant following 4 days for the players of Pierre Aristouy, fifteenth in the championship.

But Nantes can boast, as once morest Monaco last week (3-3), of having bent without breaking once morest a team far superior on paper and in a boiling context. “It’s an important match, an important point given the way it went,” said the FC Nantes coach following the draw.

Mohamed once more decisive

OM Senegalese striker Ismaïla Sarr opens the scoring in Nantes, September 1, 2023

AFP

In an incandescent Beaujoire, led by a Loire stand overmotivated by recent conflicts with the management of the club, it was nevertheless OM who made Nantes live a hellish first quarter of an hour, suffocated by each offensive and multiplying the losses of the ball on the suffocating pressing of the visitors.

A first ball in the area for Vitinha set fire to the Canaries defense (1st), before Chancel Mbemba hit over the bar when he was unmarked (2nd). On a new huge opportunity, Vitinha then came up once morest Descamps (3rd).

A minute later, Descamps once more repelled a shot from Vitinha, but Ismaila Sarr took charge of a powerful shot to put the ball in the back of the net (4th).

It was then the young Bastien Meupiyou, 17 and propelled holder for the first time in his career, who cracked with a gross foul on Sarr in front of his surface as the last defender, logically receiving a red (9th).

Reduced to 10, the Nantes residents still suffered for long minutes, before raising their heads, in particular thanks to Merlin, active on his left side, once morest the Marseillais who lowered the intensity by a notch.

The young Nantes defender Bastien Meupiyou (d) is excluded by referee Ruddy Buquet once morest OM, September 1, 2023 at La Beaujoire

AFP

Back to goal control, half-turn and perfect shot: center-forward Mohamed, who already scored twice once morest Monaco last week, once once more hit the mark for the equalizing goal (39th).

Like the Argentinian Joaquin Correa, not very incisive for his first start, the Olympians often lacked precision on returning from the locker room, obtaining few serious chances in the second period. It was in the last quarter of an hour, one-way, that the Marseillais proved to be dangerous once more, Aubameyang missing the target (90 + 4) at the end of the match.

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