Marseille stays in the Race….

Before the Sunday game, not many were betting on Marseille to beat Bordeaux and stay relevant in the chase of Lyon. Let’s face it, we have many important players missing (Mamadou Niang still injured, Lorik Cana’s injury much worse than initially predicted, Baky Koné’s injury much better as in “no surgery needed” but still three weeks away from playing condition), our defense is mediocre at best and the killer we were supposed to be getting in Brandao hasn’t shot more than five times in three games and has not appeared to be anything more than the shadow of his former self.

We went into the game with only one certainty, Bordeaux is the best team in football as we speak and the #1 contenders and we could be losing our chances of Champions league qualifications if we lose points as we did against Sochaux last weekend.
But the Marseille team came on the pitch with an obvious motivation to win the game. And even though we didn’t dominate as we should have at home, we were not dominated either. In what was a pleasant (even though somewhat rough) game, we came out on top, thanks to an own goal from Marouane Chamakh.

The good news is that Julien Rodriguez, back with the armband makes us feel much more secure about this defense. After a year off the pitch, hopefully “the Boss” (”Le taulier”) will be healthy enough for us in the UEFA Cup and the end of the championship. Aside from that, Steve Mandanda is clearly the best keeper in the league, no questions asked. “The phenomenon” did it all like we were back in March ‘08. What would we do without him, seriously?
Oh and Sylvain Wiltord scored a perfectly normal goal that was refused, Ref. Bré, showing once again his incompetence. Thankfully, Bordeaux didn’t take advantage of that in the final moments.

Here are the highlights:

Category: French Ligue 1

Tags: Alou DIARRA, Ben Arfa, Bonnart, bordeaux, Brandao, Cavenaghi, Cheyrou, Civelli, French Ligue 1, Henrique, Hilton, Jussie, Kaboré, Laurent Blanc, Mandanda, Marouane Chamakh, Matthieu Chalmé, MBami, Mears, Riou, Rodriguez, Souleymane Diawara, Taiwo, Trémoulinas, Ullrich Rame, Valbuena, Wendel, wiltord, yoann gourcuff, Zenden., Ziani

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