Olympique de Marseille: Droit au But

In a game where Olympique de Marseille were favourites to score a lot of goals against fourth tier side Pau FC, the game played out at a pace that may not have been too surprising as Pau sat deep and allowed Marseille to attack them. However Goliath failed to break David until extra time as their game plan paid off very effectively. The goal did eventually come though, 8 minutes into the first half of extra time as Romain Alessandrini found Paolo De Ceglie who curled a fantastic ball into the 6 yard box from the left hand flank, finding Remy Cabella, whose initial shot was saved. However the goalkeeper failed to control the ball and he spilled the ball into the path of Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi who powered the ball into the top corner of the goal to put Marseille into the lead. Despite Pau trying their best to pull the game back, the French giants were able to ride the game out, and seal an extra time victory over the fourth tier side and move into the Semi Finals, without any real problems, even if it did take them 98 minutes to score.

Steve Mandanda in the Marseille goal was the hero for Olympique de Marseille team and fans as he saved three penalties during an intense penalty shootout. During a boring game played at a relatively slow pace, Marseille tried to pick off Lille OSC on the counter attack but their strikers continued their barren run as the game ended 0-0 in a game where Marseille nor Lille offered little in terms of clear goal scoring chances. Deep into extra time though Lille piled on the pressure but were unable to make the breakthrough and so the game went to penalty. Things got off to a good start in the shootout for Marseille as Lucas Silva scored their first, but Sofiane Boufel scored Lille’s first too. The next two penalties were poor for Marseille as two of their in-form wingers Remy Cabella and Lucas Ocampos both missed, as did Mauricio Cuero for Lille but Rio Mavuba was able to give Lille the lead in the shootout with a fantastic penalty which Mandanda had no chance of getting to. The fourth round of penalties was the turning point as Lassana Diarra stepped up and coolly slotted his penalty into the bottom right corner, and Mandanda’s heroics really started to shine through as he saved from Stoppila Sunzu with his feet after the substitute had gone straight down the middle. Nolan Mbemba and former Lille midfielder Marvin Martin both scored their sides fifth penalties, but Mandanda was the hero on spot kick 6. When Javi Manquillo stepped up to start the penalties in sudden death, the Spanish right back smashed the ball past Vincent Enyeama. Tyron Ivanof stepped up with the confidence drained from his face, and unsurprisingly missed the penalty by firing down to the right but his precision was poor and Mandanda guessed the right way to send Marseille into the final of the Coupe de France on penalties. Next up for Christophe Galtier’s men is the final against Stade Rennais on the 21st May at the Stade de France.