OM win on PAOK’s lawn and reach the semi-finals of the Europa League Conference – L’Équipe.fr

The match: 0-1 We had expected infernal pressure from the public at the Toumba stadium on the OM players. Finally, the men of Jorge Sampaoli did not live the predicted hell. The Marseillais, winners in the first leg (2-1), won this Thursday evening (1-0) and are heading towards the semi-finals of the Europa League Conference where they will find Feyenoord Rotterdam, scorer of Slavia Prague (3 -1; 3-3 one way) on April 28 and then May 5. Marseille owes this success to its two veterans Dimitri Payet (35), scorer, and Steve Mandanda (37), author of several decisive stops (see elsewhere). The Olympians started the game with three scares (5th, 10th, 11th) before a first off target attempt from Payet on a throw-in from Amine Harit (13th). Ingason did not go far from scoring against his side and giving the visitors the advantage (26th) but it was Payet, ideally found by Mattéo Guendouzi who opened the scoring (34th). While the Marseillais had ended the first period with a decisive save from Mandanda (45th), they narrowly missed the break just after returning from the locker room when Bakambu missed the target (47th). Paschalakis repelled a strike from Gueye (53rd) before another attempt from Ingason (59th). The PAOK players pushed at the end of the game and got themselves several hot situations (70th, 83rd, 89th, 90th) but the Marseille lock did not give in. The Olympians record a second clean sheet in a row after that against Montpellier (2-0) on Sunday but above all, they are now on a good series of 8 straight wins. Unheard of since the Bielsa era. The player: Mandanda, phenomenal For the first time since August, Steve Mandanda has played three matches in a row: the first quarter (2-1), the victory against Montpellier (2-0) and the return quarter. In view of the performance of his goalkeeper, Sampaoli did well to upset his hierarchy and offer playing time to a very inspired Mandanda, except perhaps on this raise on Akpom which allowed Kurtic to attempt the lob ( 30th). Apart from this inconsequential mistake, Mandanda lived up to his nickname, “El Fenomeno”. At the start of the match, he saved his team twice against Akpom (10th) then Crespo (11th). At the end of the first period, his firm hand allowed OM to join the locker room with a goal lead (45th). He could even have been a decisive passer for Bakambu at the start of the second period (47th). He then made an incredible save on a volley from Zivkovic (70th) then a high-class save on a shot from Mitrita. Enough to give Sampaoli headaches until the end of the season. 14 Dimitri Payet scored his 14th goal of the season with OM in all competitions.