Olympique de Marseille: Droit au But

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CHARLES ARANGUIZ ARRIVES ON LOAN

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Midfielder Charles Aranguiz, Olympique de Marseille’s new loan signing has made 45 appearances for Chile, scoring 7 goals.

Olympique de Marseille have officially announced their second signing of the current January Transfer Window as Chilean midfielder Charles Aranguiz has arrived at the Stade Velodrome on loan for the rest of the season from Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen. The Chilean midfielder failed to make an impact at the Bundesliga club after only making 3 appearances in the league since his £9.25 million transfer from Internacional although an Achilles tendon injury did keep him out for 9 months.

With several key players away at the African Cup of Nations or out injured/suspended, Christophe Galtier is believed to have moved quickly to secure the signature of Aranguiz as extra depth for his team as they chase silverware at the end of the season. The manager himself expressed his delight at securing Aranguiz’s signature. ”He is a player with a lot of experience as well as a lot of quality, and although he had an unfortunate year last year, he is still an exceptional player and hopefully he can do a very good job for us for the remainder of the season, and help us achieve everything we want to this year.”

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COUPE DE LA LIGUE SEMI FINAL UPDATE

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Olympique de Marseille qualified for their first Coupe de la Ligue final since 2012 with a tight victory over AS Monaco at the Stade Louis II. With the club sitting joint top of the Ligue 1 going into the game against Monaco, and looking likely to qualify for the Quarter Finals of the Coupe de France, L’OM are still on course for an unprecedented domestic treble. However Marseille didn’t get off to the best of starts as Monaco took advantage of a poor Marseille counter attack and hit Christophe Galtier’s men on the break themselves. The move culminated in Falco slipping Fabinho free down the right wing who delivered a fantastic cross to Stephan El Shaarawy who scored at the back post to give AS Monaco the lead. However after 35 minutes, Marseille were level as Jonas Martin played Franck Tabanou down the left wing, who played in Romain Alessandrini and the French left winger played the ball across the face of the goal to Remy Cabella who slotted the ball home to level the tie at 1-1. In a very tense second half, the only goal, which proved to be the winner, came about through a horrible error by Borja Lopez as he failed to clear the ball, instead gifting possession to Mauro Zarate who found Remy Cabella. Remy Cabella ran in behind the Monaco defence before playing the ball over to Zarate who, with an open goal in front of him, slotted home the winner to give Marseille their place in the Final against an FC Nantes side who beat Toulouse 3-0 in the other Semi-Final.

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20.01.2017: OGC Nice 0-1 Olympique de Marseille

5: L. Ocampos

28.01.2017: Olympique de Marseille 1-1 Toulouse

29: R. Alessandrini

54: W. Ben Yedder

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COUPE DE FRANCE ELEVENTH ROUND UPDATE & QUARTER FINAL DRAW

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After being drawn to face an opponent that had already eliminated two Ligue 1 sides in SM Caen and OGC Nice in the previous rounds of the competition, Olympique de Marseille managed to avoid humiliation in the 11th Round of the Coupe de France against Quevilly Rouen Metropole. However it was a tight and tense affair as Marseille never really dominated as the only goal of the game came after 22 minutes when Franck Tabanou’s corner was cleared to Romain Alessandrini who found Charles Aranguiz in space just inside the Quevilly penalty area, and the Chilean midfielder fired home. After the goal, neither side really threatened the opposing goal and the game ended 1-0 with Marseille moving into the Quarter Finals without any real scares.

COUPE DE FRANCE QUARTER FINAL DRAW

With the French Champions and the current Coupe de France holders still being in the competition there are some big ties to be played in this seasons Coupe de France. French Champions PSG will host Girondins de Bordeaux, whilst the only side not in Ligue 1 left in the competition, US Colomiers, will host Troyes. Current holders Olympique de Marseille will host Montpellier HSC, whilst the club bottom of Ligue 1, EA Guingamp host fellow strugglers FC Lorient in the remaining Quarter Finals.

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UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE PREVIEW: AFC AJAX VS. OLYMPIQUE DE MARSEILLE

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09.02.2017: AFC Ajax 2-1 Olympique de Marseille

32: L. Schone (pen)

62: A. El Ghazi

68: R. Cabella

16.02.2017: Olympique de Marseille 3-0 (4-2 Agg) AFC Ajax

4: J. Martin

82: E. Adebayor

85: A. Diaby

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The draw for the Round of 16 in this seasons UEFA Europa League has thrown up a very intriguing tie for Christophe Galtier’s Olympique de Marseille side as they will visit David Moyes’ Olympique Lyonnais side for the First Leg, before hosting them the week later. With Marseille having won the game at the Stade des Lumieres in Ligue 1, 3-2 earlier on in the season, Galtier and the Marseille fans will be confident of their sides chances of qualifying for the Quarter Finals. The highlights of the other ties in the round sees Manchester City host Tottenham Hotspur, Wolfsburg meeting Athletic Bilbao and Internazionale playing Spartak Moscow over the two legs. The first legs will be played Thursday 2nd March, with the return legs being the week after on Thursday 9th March 2017.

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04.02.2016: Olympique de Marseille 0-1 EA Guingamp

47: D. Appiah

12.02.2017: SM Caen 0-3 Olympique de Marseille

27: L. Perrin

74: M. Batshuayi

90+2: R. Alessandrini

19.02.2016: Olympique de Marseille 1-0 Stade de Reims

28: J. Martin

22.02.2017: FC Nantes 0-0 Olympique de Marseille

25.02.2017: Olympique de Marseille 4-0 Sochaux-Montbeliard

12: M. Batshuayi

58: R. Alessandrini

74: M. Batshuayi

78: A. Diaby

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CHRISTOPHE GALTIER: "NO ONE EXPECTED THIS, BUT WE'LL GIVE IT OUR BEST SHOT!"

On the back of another good month of results for Olympique de Marseille, manager Christophe Galtier has been speaking to L'Equipe about his sides results and the title race that the club now finds itself in. With 11 games of the season left, Galtier's L'OM sit second in the table with 51 points, winning 14, drawing 9 and losing 4 of the clubs 27 games this season. They are two points behind leaders and current champions PSG and with a huge game to come against the Champions later on in the season, Galtier is upbeat about his team's chances this season.

THE RUN IN

"Hopefully further on in the season we'll have learnt from those games and pick up results from similar situations"

"At the start of the season, nobody expected us to get this far into the season and still be involved in the hunt for the title. But we are and people have to accept it, and accept that we, at this moment in time are a good side. This last month we have done exceptionally well to beat the likes of Sochaux, Reims and Caen. Maybe we should have done better against Guingamp and then against Nantes but that's just football, and hopefully further on in the season we'll have learnt from those games and pick up results from similar situations."

When asked how he thought his team would fare in the crunch games against the likes of Monaco and PSG, the manager was still upbeat and confident of his teams chances. "Look we've proven we can beat these teams already. In the cups and last season, and the team we had then was weaker than the one we have now. We are a good side. Nobody expected this, but we're going to give it our best shot. PSG are obviously a magnificent team as are Monaco but we will go into every game in this run in confident of finding our best form and grabbing a result."


Galtier shows his appreciation for the fans at the Stade Velodrome after Marseille thump relegation threatenede Sochaux-Montbeliard, 4-0 to maintain the pressure on league leaders Paris Saint-Germain.

With big games against local rivals Montpellier and former side AS Saint-Etienne in March, as well as a Europa League tie with Olympique Lyonnais, L'OM fans have a lot of games to look forward or potentially fear as there are games everywhere that could potentially cause a slip up. Forwards Michy Batshauyi and Emmanuel Adebayor have spoken about the positive atmosphere in the dressing room and how the team go into every game confident of finding the victory. A lot of Marseille's recent success has been inspired by their back line with Asmir Begovic, coming in on-loan from Chelsea in January, having kept 4 clean sheets in successive games at the end of the month alone.

THE PLAYERS

"If we win the title by winning games 1-0, keeping clean sheets then we will have been effective at both ends of the pitch."

"Asmir has come in and made a huge impact. Steve Mandanda was a club legend but he did make a lot of mistakes and perhaps that didnt fill our defenders with the confidence they needed to be filled with when he was in goal. Asmir has something different about him. He is the number 1 goalkeeper for his nation, and he might not have played much at Chelsea, but that hasnt hindered him here and we have a World Class goalkeeper on our hands. If we win the title by winning games 1-0 and Asmir and our defence keeping clean sheets then no one will be complaining because we have been extremely effective at both ends of the pitch."


Michy Batshuayi celebrates after his goal in the 74th minute against SM Caen, put L'OM 2-0 up and on track for their first win in a run of three victoryies and draw at the end February.

The conversation soon moved on to Marseille's man of the moment, Michy Batshuayi who scored three goals in 4 games to help Marseille. "Michy is one of those players, that if we do win this league title, then he will go down as the man who really inspired this team to glory. Michy is the guy on the training ground trying to calm everyone down and tell them that we just need to take it a day at a time, and for someone so young that is great to see. He's scored quite a lot of goals this year and thats fantastic, it's just what we needed, and when you have someone like Emmanuel Adebayor in the squad, teaching him, talking to him about everything little thing out on the pitch that he does then he is obviously learning at quite an astounding rate."

THE FUTURE

"I want myself and this squad to be the team that did win the title with Marseille and then go on to further success."

Galtier also went on to talk about his future at the club. "If we win the League then you would think that my future here is pretty secure. But the last thing anyone wants to do is give it a real go at the title one season and then flop the next. It happens quite a lot, look at Brendan Rodgers at Liverpool the other year. He will always be remembered as the manager that almost won the Premier League with Liverpool, and I don't want to be the manager that almost won Ligue 1 with Marseille. I want myself and this squad to be the people that did win the title with Marseille and then go on to further success because otherwise it doesn't end well for any of us really does it?"


Christophe Galtier celebrates with the Saint-Etienne team that won the Coupe de la Ligue in 2013, his only trophy as a manager to date.

When we finally asked Galtier what he really thought about Marseille's title chances, the former Saint-Etienne manager began to beam, looking extremely excited. "Obviously we want to win it, but like I said earlier no one expected this. I dont think anyone really thinks we'll be able to do it and it is going to be about keeping that attitude out of the squad. We'll take it a game at a time, and give it our best shot. There's nothing else we can do really, and at the minute its out of our hands. I believe in this squad though, and with that little bit of luck, who knows what we can achieve."