No happy, no unhappy: Marseille and Monaco separated in a 1-1 draw on Saturday during the 20th day of L1, a result which interrupts Marseille’s fine series of victories but keeps the podium ambitions of both alive teams.

There was not the stunning final of the match in the first leg, when a goal in extremis by Kolasinac had allowed OM to win 3-2 at Louis-II and definitively drive out what was already a onset of crisis.

After the three points from the first leg, OM will therefore have to settle for a single point on the return leg and may regret not having extended their collection of consecutive successes to nine and not having managed a better operation, Rennes (5th) having lost and Lens (2nd) having drawn.

Marseille ultimately remains 3rd, two lengths behind the Sang et Or, and keeps its five-point lead over Monaco (4th). But it is undoubtedly a badly seen minimum of the first period of the match on Saturday.

So attractive, and even impressive, against Troyes, Lorient and Rennes, Marseille indeed took the match upside down this time, or was put in the wrong direction by Monaco, who for their part had prepared their case very well. .

Very safe technically, with the impeccable Golovine and the stunning Ben Seghir, not intimidated at 17 by the Vélodrome and its 64,000 occupants, the team from the Principality immediately found plenty of space, especially on the left wing negative.

– Unpredictable tavares –

Opposite, Rongier, Veretout, Malinovskyi and even Guendouzi, all at the same time on a bad evening, painfully directed a laborious and hesitant maneuver, far too slow to threaten the ASM.

Philippe Clément’s team therefore logically took the advantage on a goal scored by Veretout with a header against his camp, on a good free kick from Golovine (1-0, 17th).

It then took a double miracle to save OM, with an astonishing save from Blanco, replacing Pau Lopez, on a stung ball from Ben Yedder, who then struck wide in the second half of the action.

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This price offered OM the possibility of staying in the game and the end of the first period was less poor for Igor Tudor’s team.

So, after the break, the Croatian technician tried a tactical move by replacing Guendouzi with Balerdi, which notably had the effect of moving Nuno Tavares to the right.

Already quite unpredictable on the left, his natural side, the Portuguese proved difficult to read on the other wing for his opponents and he was at the origin of the equalizing goal with a powerful strike, on which the hands de Nübel, the Monegasque goalkeeper, really skated. Alexis Sanchez followed, unlike Disasi, and OM came back into the game (1-1, 47th).

– Sanchez Festival –

His second period was then infinitely better than the first, with a real festival of Sanchez, inexhaustible and inspired, but OM could not get ahead, despite a header on the bar from Balerdi or a fine volley from Payet.

OM would have especially wanted to obtain a penalty on a tackle from Maripan on Kolasinac in the box, which did not move the video assistants, to the great anger of Pablo Longoria and Igor Tudor.

“What is the VAR for, what is it for?” Asked the Marseille president, very upset in the corridors of the Vélodrome, according to images broadcast by Canal +.

“For me, it’s a penalty and a clean red. It’s the biggest mistake I’ve seen since there was VAR in football. It’s something inexplicable and unacceptable,” said de his side judged Tudor in press conference.

After this incident, the end of the match was still hair-raising between cramps and more or less lucid last rushes and the two teams could have pulled off the piece. They finally had to share it and consider what’s next, two league matches to come next week, then, for OM, the Coupe de France and Paris SG in ten days.

stt/bvo/hpa