A catastrophic display in Marseille leaves Villarreal a foot and a half out of Europe, damaged just at its best moment of the season, a mirage at the Vélodrome against a rival that was several gears ahead. OM came, with a strong leg from the beginning, to look for their rival and in that pressure they managed to diffuse him, took the ball from him and sank him before Pepe Reina’s goal, which was by no means the worst for his team. From there the disasters followed: an own goal, an imprudent penalty, the inability to put together passes in the Gauls’ territory, three goals before half-time.
4
Pau López, Jonathan Clauss (Bamo Meïté, min. 60), Leonardo Balerdi, Quentin Merlin, Mbemba, Amine Harit, Kondogbia, Veretout (Luis Henrique, min. 73), Ismaila Sarr, Iliman Ndiaye (Azz-Eddine Ounahi, min. 60) and Aubameyang (Faris Moumbagna, min. 85)
0
Reina, Eric Bailly, Jorge Cuenca, Yerson Mosquera, Mandi (Alberto Moreno, min. 45), Comesaña (Parejo, min. 45), Álex Baena (Sörloth, min. 45), Ilias Chakkour, Coquelin (Capoue, min. 69 ), Gerard Moreno (Kiko Femenía, min. 65) and Gonçalo Guedes
Goals 1-0 min. 22: Veretout. 2-0 min. 27: Yerson Mosquera (pp). 3-0 min. 42: Aubameyang. 4-0 min. 58: Aubameyang.
Referee Serdar Gözübüyük
Yellow cards Mandi (min. 9), Quentin Merlin (min. 12), Comesaña (min. 46), Alberto Moreno (min. 51) and Jorge Cuenca (min. 71)
Marcelino, booed on his return to Marseille, swerved at half-time. He called Alberto Moreno, Parejo and Sorloth and sent the team into a war that was already lost no matter how encouraging the re-entry seemed. Villarreal opened up and there came more punishment because Aubameyang hit him with a silk fist using a subtle Vaseline and, almost without interruption, Alberto Moreno saw the second yellow card. He was on the field for just over a quarter of an hour, the epitome of the yellow debacle.
The Olympique lowered revs, but did not stop accelerating. His coach removed Ndiaye from the field, as active as he was undetectable to his rivals. He sacrificed verticality for control through the skillful Ounahi and always enjoyed the talent of another Moroccan international, Harit. Villarreal prepared to minimize damage in a painful epilogue, without the strength, ability or presence to take the lead. He barely got close to Paul López in a collective action in which there were plenty of passes in the area and he could feel lucky not to leave Marseille more bleeding because Olympique was satisfied with the four-goal advantage.
The first leg in the round of 16 in the Europa League reveals the toughness of the competition. Liverpool beat Sparta in Prague (1-5) and measured some effort like that of Salah, who lined up for just a quarter of an hour. Roma also beat (4-0) the effervescent Brighton coached by Roberto de Zerbi. Another favorite, German leader Bayer Leverkusen, had a worse time in Baku against Qarabag, who went into the break two goals ahead. Xabi Alonso’s unbeaten team tied (2-2) almost on the hour mark. Another of the favorites, Milan, got their tie back on track against Slavia Prague (4-2) and the duels between Benfica and Rangers (2-2) at the Estadio da Luz or the one between Freiburg and West Ham are closer. in favor of the German team (1-0) before the return in London. Before, on Wednesday, Sporting and Atalanta had tied in Lisbon (1-1).
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