Not considered essential in Ligue 1 by his coach Jorge Sampaoli, the Polish striker is delighted as soon as he is given a chance in European competition or in the Coupe de France.
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Him again. During their round of 16 first leg of the Europa League Conference against Basel on Thursday March 10, largely dominated but with minimal efficiency, Olympique de Marseille was still able to count on Arkadiusz Milik. The Polish striker scored both goals for the Marseille club, which won 2-1 at home and will enter the second leg with a head start.
He first spoke by opening the score with a subtle panenka to convert the penalty obtained by Mattéo Guendouzi (19th), then by being opportunistic by finding the nets after a ball returned by the opposing goalkeeper (68th). Enough to score his third goal in C4 and his seventh in seven European Cup games this season.
The Pole, who scored for his fifth consecutive appearance on the European scene, posed the question of his status within OM, of which he is not the number one option at the forefront of the attack in the League 1 despite the lack of competition in his position (he has not chained two tenures in the league since November).
5 – Arkadiusz Milik became the first OM player to score in 5 consecutive matches in European competition (excluding the preliminary rounds) since Jean-Pierre Papin between 1988 and 1989 (5 also). Grantatakan. #OMFCB #UECL pic.twitter.com/djIE1FIPFg
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) March 10, 2022
Because, if he has scored only 5 goals in 17 Ligue 1 games this season, Arkadiusz Milik stacks the pawns as soon as there is no longer any question of the championship. He now has 17 goals in 28 appearances in total, 12 of which have been scored in his 11 Cup appearances (5 in the Coupe de France, 4 in the Europa League, 3 in the Europa League Conference).
It remains to be seen whether his double on Thursday will allow him to gain credit with his coach Jorge Sampaoli, with whom he does not have a very warm relationship. The Argentinian did not appreciate the media outings of his striker, who had notably dropped that there “had things he didn’t understand” after giving victory to OM coming off the bench against Metz on February 13. Five days later, Sampaoli reframed him at a press conference: “If he’s not happy then, maybe he needs to talk about it with someone else.“