We had a hundredth happiest in the European Cup. Steve Mandanda passed a milestone, Thursday, April 28, during the semi-final first leg of the Europa League conference between Feyenoord Rotterdam and Olympique de Marseille (3-2), and there is no doubt that the captain of OM will try to forget this evening. In the De Kuip stadium, the Marseille goalkeeper was totally let go by his defense, completely gone through when it was she who had been the strength of the Marseille club for many months.
OM conceded at least three goals for only the second time in 2022, after losing to Nice in February in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France (1-4). After a start to the season where the Marseille defense showed sufficiency, Jorge Sampaoli had decided to react in the fall. No more reckless offensive risk-taking, the Argentine coach of OM has rebalanced his team, even if it means favoring pragmatism. And it worked: Marseille currently have the third best defense in Ligue 1 and their rearguard ensures them second place behind PSG for the moment.
But Thursday evening, in front of the 2,000 Marseille supporters who made the trip to Rotterdam, the OM defense failed. In goal, Mandanda must have seen a complicated evening take shape when Luan Peres missed his header and gave Cyriel Dessers a scoring opportunity in the seventh minute. Nothing serious, compared to the totally missed back pass from Duje Caleta-Car after eight seconds in the second half. A gift for Dessers, author of the third goal, the one that will give victory to Feyenoord.
It was the entire Marseille defense that showed great excitement on Thursday. William Saliba, very successful at the start of the season and who discovered the French team at the end of March, was moved by Dessers and even involuntarily sent him to beat Mandanda on Feyenoord’s first goal. Valentin Rongier, successfully repositioned by Sampaoli as right-back for several months, fell into the line-up on the second goal.
“We missed our match, we made a lot of technical and individual errorslamented Mattéo Guendouzi after the match at the microphone of M6, in an unfeigned allusion to the defense. It’s not OM, it doesn’t look like what we’ve been doing this season.” Usually so serene, especially in the recovery, the Marseille defense was greatly hampered by the pressing of the Dutch players.
1 – Marseille lost their 1st game in European competition since November 2021 (2-4 v Galatasaray), ending the best winning streak on the European stage in their history (7). Stop. #FEYOM pic.twitter.com/atdbnmF9oa
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) April 28, 2022
“We wanted to avoid their pressing but we were subjected to it. (…) At this stage of the competition, you cannot go wrong and remain asphyxiated. The frustration of not being able to play has generated errors“, explained Jorge Sampaoli in the post-match press conference. On several occasions, Luan Peres and Caleta-Car gave the raise scares.
“We knew they were going to hurry but we tried to get out despite that, maybe too much. We might have been able to lengthen it a bit more“, conceded Valentin Rongier at a press conference. As a result of this risk-taking, OM ended the game with three clear errors that led to opposing shots, which they had not done for two years and which says all about his defensive fragility on Thursday.
The Marseille defense, also often taken behind his back – “a problem to solve“, according to Rongier -, therefore missed his match in the big widths. A first for OM since the club was returned to the Europa League conference in February. Marseille had trembled at the end of their first leg play-off match against Qarabag (3-1) But this feverishness appeared when OM were leading by two goals.
“If we play like in the first period in the second leg, our possibilities will be limited“, warned Sampaoli. No question of exposing his goal again at the Vélodrome. Fortunately, Steve Mandanda remained vigilant in Rotterdam. meeting for a year. So far, his return to Marseille goals has been idyllic.
Thursday evening, he will have made two decisive saves at the end of the match, which prevent OM from leaving two goals behind. Marseille knows it: it won’t be able to defend as badly a second time in a row if it wants to qualify for the final. But OM are still alive before next Thursday, and that’s all we need to remember from this first leg.