At the Francis-Turcan stadium, in Martigues
A grassy lawn, a country stadium, and slides galore, you don’t need many more ingredients to know that we are witnessing a good old Coupe de France match. Not on the lawn of the Vélodrome stadium, but that of the Francis-Turcan stadium in Martigues, where Olympique de Marseille had relocated its Cup match against Hyères, after the impossibility of organizing it at the Mayol stadium, to the great regret of Mourad Boudjellal. Who didn’t even bother to make the trip.
The first minutes of the match looked like a quagmire match for OM, with players not necessarily motivated, and molded cleats not quite suitable. But then what about Eric Bailly’s attack on poor Moussa N’Diaye? A hesitation at the start, and the former Manchester United defender came to kick the Hyères midfielder’s chest with his sole. Verdict, an exit on a stretcher and a possible pneumothorax for the victim, still under observation at the hospital at the time of these lines. And a red card for his executioner, leaving his teammates at 10.
“We got into trouble on our own from the start of the match. In addition, we had talked about it before, at 10 against 11 it is never easy, even against a weaker team ”, regretted Matteo Guendouzi afterwards.
“It was not a good performance”
A difficult first half for Tudor’s men on a lawn “which did not help us”, according to Igor Tudor, finally ended with a small advantage in the score. Thanks to a penalty offered by Jérémy Stinat, the referee of this match, for a non-existent fault on Under, and transformed by Sanchez (45+1).
Fortunately for them, the Marseillais were not caught up in the second half, despite three good attempts from Hyèroise, including a post. And it took until the 70th minute to see Bamba Dieng put his teammates to safety; finally concluding one of its opportunities. “Bamba was good, he scored a goal. But he could have scored others, ”said Tudor, as the striker made more slides on the lawn than he framed shots.
“It was not a good performance, even with one player less we could have done better. There was a lot of waste, the performance is not good and it’s a shame compared to that, ”supported Guendouzi.
“Give everything to avoid a complicated situation”
But the essential was assured in this afternoon which looked like a trap. “It was a difficult match to manage, everyone knows that Cup matches are difficult matches to play, dangerous. Especially since the red card situation is a game-changer, ”supported the Croatian coach.
A difficult match during which OM had to adapt “because we didn’t have many players on the bench”, according to their coach, but which should serve as a lesson for the rest of the competition like the Croatian l stressed: “The little lesson to be learned for the future is that when you play a match against a lower division team you have to give everything to avoid falling into a complicated situation”, warned Tudor. Especially since the Marseillais have set themselves the goal of winning this Coupe de France.