Olympique de Marseille won this Wednesday evening against Saint-Etienne in their sixth preparation match. The Phocaeans, thanks to Konrad de la Fuente and Alvaro Gonzalez, won 2-1.
The party was beautiful this Wednesday evening, at the Jean Laville Stadium in Gueugnon, for the friendly gala match between Olympique de Marseille and AS Saint-Etienne. Ten days before the start of Ligue 1, the two teams are reaching the very end of their preparation and offered great opposition to the many supporters present on the spot. Moreover, it was not necessary to be late to attend the show since OM opened the scoring from the 3rd minute on a marvel of Konrad de la Fuente. Very inspired tonight and elusive in the left lane, the American winger perfectly concludes a ball recovered very high by Dimitri Payet. The number 10 Marseille presses Neyou, who loses the ball against Guendouzi. Very quickly, Benedetto is served and sends the former Barça in depth. A control oriented using a roulette wheel and a cross-strike from the left later, de la Fuente lifts the many OM fans present!
Khazri responds to De la Fuente
Saint-Etienne responded very quickly and twice alerted the Marseille defense with breakthroughs from Adil Aouchiche. However, the other big action at the start of the match is due to Valentin Rongier, whose floating long shot is not far from surprising Etienne Green (12th). If all goes well so far for OM, a big blow comes in the 15th minute as Steve Mandanda has to give up his place due to a thigh injury. The titular goalkeeper was visibly injured during the warm-up and did not force a few days before the start of the championship. The young Simon Ngapandouetnbu then comes into play and is powerless on the Stéphanoise equalizer in the 20th. Indeed, Valentin Rongier loses a dangerous ball 25 meters from his cages, since he does not take information on Wahbi Khazri who comes behind his back. The Tunisian recovers, accelerates and deceives the Marseille goalkeeper with a strike from the right to cross land (20th).
Guendouzi already in boss
Despite the equalizer, OM do not tremble and keep their playing intentions: Sampaoli’s team is very high on the field and creates many shifts in the left lane thanks to the untenable Konrad de la Fuente. The American winger is one of the great successes tonight, as is Mattéo Guendouzi. The former Arsenal is already like a fish in water in this Marseille team! Clearly, the contributions of the recruits of Pablo Longoria have changed the group of Jorge Sampaoli, which finally has players capable of meeting his demands.
In the second half, the intensity drops on the Marseille side, the fault of Stéphanois who are much more present and better placed. Claude Puel’s team was more offensive, thanks to Boudebouz’s very good first minutes after returning from the locker room, but failed to take the advantage. Conversely, Olympique de Marseille suffered before recovering and finishing strong. Alvaro Gonzalez, from a corner, scored the winning goal in the 87th minute, on a good corner hit by Ünder. A great meeting on the part of the Marseillais but also of the Stéphanois! A good omen ten days before the start of Ligue 1.
OM’s starting XI: Mandanda – Saliba, Balerdi, Amavi – Rongier, Guendouzi – Radonjic, Payet, Gerson, Konrad – Benedetto.
The starting XI of ASSE: Green – Mason, Moukoudi, Kolodziejczak, Silva – Youssouf, Camara, Neyou – Aouchiche, Abi, Khazri