Olympique Marseille entered the new season victorious!

Montpellier Hérault host Olympique Marseille in the first round of the French Ligue 1. More than 13 000 spectators gathered at the Stade de la Mosson to give the home team a great atmosphere. Both teams were considerably weakened. Marseille were missing Caleta-Car, Milik and Pau Lopez, for example. Montpellier, on the other hand, were missing Savanier, Sakho and Omlin.

Mamadou Sakho, who left Crystal Palace and signed as a free agent in Montpellier, could not make his debut for the home team due to his lack of fitness. Another significant weakening was also the injury of scorpion Teji Savanier, but even that did not prevent the fighters in dark blue jerseys from entering the match in style.

Olympique did open the scoring in the third minute, but Payet’s goal was disallowed due to offside and so the attacking duo of Laborde – Delort took over. Algerian international and a huge figure in the team, Andy Delort found his teammate Laborde with a beautiful centre, who delivered the ball into the net, but also with the help of stopper Peres.

The second goal came a few minutes later and again Laborde was involved, with a brilliant technical shot that beat goalkeeping legend Mandanda.

There were plenty of new signings in the Olympique jersey, including Luan Perez, an own goal scorer who arrived from Brazilian side Santos in the summer. Another player who didn’t quite make it in his first competitive game is midfielder Gerson, who was withdrawn by coach Sampaoli after the first half. Saliba and Guendouzi, who came from Arsenal in England, are also worth mentioning.

The second half was marked by a big turnaround. In the 68th minute, newcomer De La Fuente broke free beautifully individually and fed the ball to another new signing Ünder, who didn’t waste a shot into an empty net. But then Dimitri Payet took the game into his own hands.

The 34-year-old Frenchman first scored in the 75th minute from a free-kick and then 5 minutes later he made a comeback with an individual action par excellence. For the visitors, it was an imaginary KO from which they could not recover.

And so Olympique Marseille confirmed their role as favourites and took 3 points from the provincial Montpellier. OM will definitely be one of the teams to watch this year. The combination of interesting signings with a quality coach Sampaoli and a really young squad could be just the ticket.

Source::Livesport