Sunday 28th April, 2019, closing the 34th day of Ligue 1, OM, beaten at home by Nantes (2-1), sees its chances of qualifying in the Champions League to die out.
The hope of Champions League for Olympique Marseille died with the new home defeat against Nantes (2-1) Sunday 28th April, 2019 for the 34th day of Ligue 1 and even the Europa League now seems out of reach.
Industrial accident. “The OM champion project” will experience a first big failure, after two and a half years of rising power. It was enough of a volley of Canaries so that the dream, fragile, of C1, evaporates, under the eyes of the owner Frank McCourt.
18 games lost
Rudi Garcia, under contract until 2021, can he remain on the bench Olympian after this disaster? His OM (5th) is relegated to 8 points of Lyon (3rd) and even 5 of Saint-Etienne (4th). And now the 5th place is no longer qualifying for the Europa League, after the victory of Rennes in the Coupe de France.
Marseille is likely to finish empty-handed, and the long-awaited OM-OL shock of May 12 leaves Marseille only the second role of the king maker, between Saint-Etienne and Lyon, for the place in C1.
OM have lost 18 games this season, plus a draw with elimination in the Coupe de la Ligue.
The only good news of the day is the rise of the women’s OM in the elite …
Balotelli is not enough
Goals from Samuel Moutoussamy (22) and Andrei Girotto (50) resulted in OM’s 12th loss in L1 and gave Nantes a fourth consecutive victory.
Mario Balotelli equalized (26), but his eighth Olympian goal was not enough.
Arrived at the transfer window for the sprint, “Super Mario” will have filled his share statistically, but he also took excessive risks. His shot in the face of Diego Carlos could be worth red card, but Johan Hamel has released only the yellow (41).
Irregularity
Like its star center, OM has been too uneven all season to achieve the feat of getting back on the podium.
The first period, however, maintained hope. OM conceded the first shot, following a missed pass from Bouna Sarr. A first strike countered by Kalifa Coulibaly benefitted Samuel Moutoussamy.
But the pair Lucas Ocampos-Balotelli responded, with the fifth decisive pass of the Argentine for a diving head of the Italian.
In the defense of Nantes, Diego Carlos was also martyred. It cost three warnings to OM. The first, for Ocampos, seemed unmerited, the Brazilian twisted his ankle alone on the action, but a late tackle by Dimitri Payet (32) and the ugly gesture of Balotelli were punished with a yellow.
OM finished strong the first period and could have taken the advantage on an error Maxime Dupé (38), before the goalkeeper Nantes make up this mistake by slamming a beautiful head of Valere Germain (44).
Sadness
But it was only a fire of straw. At the restart, Girotto once again iced the Velodrome by resuming a deflected head at close range, following a corner. Steve Mandanda blocked the ball on the other side of the line, crossing certified by technology (50).
The cutesy way that Marseille has tried to reverse destiny says a lot about the shortcomings of this team throughout the season. Only a few not very dangerous strikes from Ocampos (54, 63), Germain (59, 65), Dimitri Payet (68) or Luiz Gustavo (75) have turned around the Nantes cage.
The biggest danger came from … Diego Carlos, who missed scoring against his side (85).
In a very sad end of the match, Payet came out under the whistles (78, for Maxime Lopez), and the absence of Florian Thauvin, package, was hardly noticed, as the champion has dropped in 2019.
“Resignation! “
The match ended under the bronca, the audience singing: “Direction resignation! And “Garcia resign! ”
Before the match, supporters of the Vieille Garde asked Luiz Gustavo on a banner: “Luiz fica! A torcida ama “(Luiz, stay, the fans love you).
This is the challenge now for OM, rebuild a team, with or without Gustavo, but without the millions of euros of the Champions League, and maybe even without the euros of the Europa League …
