Eight days after their short setback against Bayern Munich (1-0), OM regained the happiness of success on Sunday, during a friendly match against Nîmes at the Stade des Costières (1-0). Not without experiencing a few fears at the end of the match, but continuing his fifth friendly match with a victory against Nîmes still looking for a first success. Author of a hat-trick just five months ago (2-3 February 28) in the league at Les Costières, the Argentinian Dario Benedetto this time remained silent against the Crocodiles before being replaced, hit in the ankle ( 41st).
But with Dimitri Payet as a passer and the Croatian international central defender Duje Caleta-Car transformed into a scorer (31st), the Marseillais of André Villas-Boas obtained the essential. Not without experiencing a final heat stroke on a strike from Yassine Benrahou pushed back by Steve Mandanda into the feet of Haris Duljevic (86th), too clumsy to find the frame. Despite possession from Nîmes at the start of the match, Marseille (in a 4-3-3 system close to its typical team) was the first to gain strength and embolden itself in this match. With a floating strike, Dimitri Payet (11th) tested Baptiste Reynet. Just before, Hiroki Sakai, alerted by Morgan Sanson, had removed his strike too much (10th).
Caleta-Car sole scorer
This did not slow down Marseille, rewarded a quarter of an hour later by a header from Caleta-Car (31st), the strongest to take over a center from Dimitri Payet (0-1). And this, just after having already given a first fright to the Gardois on a first corner from the French playmaker and international concluded by a header from the Spanish defender Alvaro Gonzalez, but pushed back by Baptiste Reynet (29th). Despite a good one-two Ferhat-Roux a bit too short (39) or a slightly too uncrossed Ferhat head in extra time (45th + 2) which could have cost him an equalizer, OM ultimately did not concede anything. . He could even have doubled the bet on a shot from Valentin Rongier (62nd) finally touching the post.
As for the Olympian defense and Steve Mandanda, they generally did the job when there were, here and there, a few hot spots to extinguish as on this big parade of the Marseille goalkeeper (86th) solid on a strike from Kévin Denkey and already there (85th) to repel a last strike from Yassine Benrahou. Something to satisfy André Villas-Boas: “Nîmes offered a match with intensity and aggressiveness, it was good for that. We did good things in the first half, but we missed the second goal. That's what we're looking for this year, to have a little more killer instinct to finish the matches earlier. On the physical efforts, it was good. We were able to do what we wanted on this aspect. " Marseille will complete its summer preparation on Friday by facing Stuttgart, in Fos-sur-Mer, in the Istres stadium (Bouches-du-Rhône).
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