Marseille held in check by Metz
The domination will not have been enough but both Marseille and Metz can feed regrets this Sunday after their hotly contested draw (0-0).
Yet in numerical superiority for almost the entire second half, after the exclusion of Jemerson (56th), his third red card of the season, for a foot too high on Payet, OM missed out on the second place in Ligue 1.
A winning comeback for Mandanda
And Metz was quite attractive, especially on the counterattack, but only on a Mandanda back as a starter, in great shape. Because for 60 minutes before the red card, Farid Boulaya and Ibrahima Niane often combined better than Dimitri Payet and Arkadiusz Milik, creating danger with almost every incursion.
OM was transfixed on his right by the incessant overflows of Thomas Delaine: the full-back had the bad luck to hit on the two uprights (7th, 34th), two shots on which Steve Mandanda was not.
Established for the first time since August 28, the international goalkeeper finally managed to keep his clean sheet at the start of the session ahead of Fabien Centonze (64th).
Marseille lacked juice
Jorge Sampaoli, suspended Sunday, will especially have things to reproach his game creators, amorphous and uninspired until the last quarter of an hour.
OM could also have fallen on the scoreboard if Boubakar Kouyaté, in an offside position, had not found himself on the path of a Metz goal finally logically canceled by video assistance (21st), or if Opa Nguette had not also negotiated numerous counterattacks.
The Marseillais seemed to lack juice, a few days after their draw (2-2) in the Europa League against Lazio Rome. Luis Henrique ran into Alexandre Oukidja (48th), a decisive Metz goalkeeper to relax on a header from Milik (80th) and a strike from Konrad De la Fuente (87th), in a breathless end to the match … But frustrating.