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Five days after its defeat in Strasbourg, Olympique de Marseille was held in check by the red lantern, Angers (1-1), after a meeting that was poor in spectacle, and marked by two red cards.
How far away seems the euphoria of the victory in Lyon (2-3), and of Jonathan Rowe’s goal in added time. Since this electric evening at Groupama Stadium, Olympique de Marseille has sunk into a certain lethargy, with a defeat in Strasbourg (1-0) against Alsatians who wanted more, and now a draw against Angers (1-1) , the red lantern.
This OM-SCO was played at a strangely slow pace, which will not serve as an advertisement for DAZN, and which begins to ask some small questions about the style advocated by Roberto De Zerbi. The Italian coach had made some strong choices in his starting line-up, preferring Neal Maupay to Elye Wahi and especially Valentin Carboni, little used until now, to Amine Harit.
In this pattern, the first period was poor, and practically consisted of two red cards. That for Angevin Lilian Rao-Lisoa, for a very dangerous tackle (26th). And that for Neal Maupay, who found a way to take two yellow cards in stride, the first very severe (27th), the second for an avoidable fault, given the context (30th).
A goal denied to Murillo
At 10 against 10, OM thought they had done the hard part by scoring thanks to their luxury joker, Jonathan Rowe, who came on at the break in place of a transparent Carboni, and authored a beautiful sequence in the area (1-0, 51st). But here again, as with the red cards, the equalizer came straight away, with a superb free kick from Farid El-Melali (1-1, 54th), whose technical quality did the SCO a world of good on this encounter.
There will be another emotional lift for OM supporters, with this goal denied to Michael Murillo (68th), who touched the ball with his hand after his head, but the Phocaeans did not really deserve better in this dull meeting . Unable to show itself clearly superior to the red lantern, this OM looks much less like a candidate for the title, all of a sudden.
