Ligue 1 – Payet, Harit, Balerdi, Golovin, Ben Yedder… Monaco’s tops and flops – Marseille

The tops

• Golovin continues to shine

Aleksandr Golovin has been a confident player in recent weeks. Before the reception of OM, the Russian midfielder remained on two goals and an assist in his last three matches. And he rode that wave. Author of a superb sequence to send Diatta to obtain the penalty of 1-1, the Monegasque maestro then positioned himself perfectly between the lines to launch Volland on the second goal of his team. A full match individually, not rewarded collectively. But he can sleep peacefully during the truce.

• Sanchez and Ben Yedder’s sweets

Artists, there were on the lawn of Louis-II Sunday evening. And they behaved as such. Shortly after half an hour of play, Alexis Sanchez opened the scoring with a magnificent free kick (35th). Ball left above the (great) Monegasque wall to go down very quickly: the Chilean made the ankle of the fine ball handlers speak, on a set piece which he had obtained himself after a nice oriented control. Ten minutes later, Wissam Ben Yedder answered him with a relaxed panenka (45th). A delight.

• OM, 30 minutes of character… and efficiency

Marseille took a huge blow to the head when Amine Harit was evacuated on a stretcher. Then another when Kevin Volland gave Monaco the lead ten minutes later. But the Phocaeans, in bad shape, did not collapse… and went to the essentials: two shots, two goals in the second period. Maximum efficiency after a long laborious second act. And a scenario that will do good to the heads, after the end of meetings which had turned in the other direction recently, in Strasbourg and against Tottenham.

The flops

Our eyes were naturally turned to Mattéo Guendouzi, Jordan Veretout and Youssouf Fofana, who will be from the World Cup in Qatar with the Blues. But any injury to a future globalist is heartbreaking, even more so. Shortly before the hour mark, Amine Harit suffered a violent knee-to-knee shock with the powerful Axel Disasi, immediately holding his left leg, his eyes wide. The realization rightly did not offer slow motion. But the state of shock of the Moroccan international and his opponent Youssouf Fofana, who mimicked what he saw to his teammates, may lead to fear the worst. The former Schalke 04 was evacuated on a stretcher.

This is neither the first nor the last time that we have thought about it, and Axel Disasi confirmed it himself after the meeting. But the Louis-II stadium was of no use to AS Monaco on Sunday evening. Worse, we heard the Marseille supporters who had traveled more than 200km more than the Monegasques. It was screaming on each of OM’s goals, constant during the match, and almost humiliating at the end of the match, where the Phocaeans launched a “to arms” with their supporters. This is a task for the ASM…

• Balerdi could have been expensive

Leonardo Balerdi is not the most consistent of Marseille defenders, to put it mildly. And the Argentinian showed it again on Sunday evening. Just before the break, it was he who put Monaco back in the game while OM dominated his subject. In the duel with Diatta, the former Dortmund first dropped the ball, allowing his opponent to enter the area, where he made a mistake. On the second Monegasque goal, many Marseilles are to blame, but he replaced himself too softly to close the space to Volland. Without consequence for OM… but a game to forget.