Olympique Marseille – Olympique Lyonnais: Fractious Encounter Ends In A Draw (1-1)
Lyon and Marseille did their best to undermine each other's hopes for progress this season. Both sides plodding through ninety unfocused minutes on their way to an undeserved single point. A grand total of three shots on target was indicative of how wayward both offenses were, especially when considering the porous defending and petulant behaviour on display.
Tactical analysis and match report by K.T. Stockwell.
Since the departure of Andre Villas-Boas, Marseille have managed a slight uptick in form, which saw them go four matches without a loss heading into Sunday night’s clash with Lyon. The improvement came just in time for the club to announce the sacking of president Jacques-Henri Eyraud and the appointment of new manager, Jorge Sampaoli.
In their last match with interim manager Nassar Larguet the home side settled into a 4-2-3-1 shape. The usual central defensive pairing of Duje Ćaleta-Car and Álvaro González were given the start between Pol Lirola and Yuto Nagatomo. Pape Gueye and Boubakar Kamara started at the base of midfield behind Dimitri Payet, who was flanked by Florian Thauvin and Saîf Khaoui, while Arkadiusz Milik got the nod up front.
Lyon recovered from their loss to Montpellier with a helter-skelter win over Brest in the previous round. Rudi Garcia’s side continue to chase first place Lille, who drew against Strasbourg earlier in the day and second place Paris Saint-Germain, who cruised past Dijon on Saturday.
Despite a questionable defensive performance against Brest, Garcia went with largely the same eleven versus Marseille. Marcelino drew back in at center-back, while Mattia De Sciglio was replaced by Maxwel . . .
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