Derby games are always passionate affairs and they generate a lot of excitement but the match itself tens to disappoint the viewers, mostly because the managers are always too cautious and they prevent the players from giving their attacking best. The games between Lyon and Marseille have not been exception to this rule in the past and no wonder nobody expected too many goals when these sides met on Sunday, but we saw a remarkable match and no less than 10 goals, five on each side. We can only hope other derbies will follow this example.
The teams entered the match on the back of some very good results in Europe with Lyon ensuring progress to the Champions League next round with a point against Liverpool, while Marseille returned into contention for the second place in the group with a 6:1 win over Zurich. Both sides were a bit inconsistent in Ligue 1 and went into the match trailing Bordeaux by two and seven points respectively. That could have been the fact that pushed the sides into more adventurous approach and that was definitely a good thing.
If someone missed the opening 15 minutes of the game because the old lady from the neighbourhood had asked them to help her track down her missing cat, they would have missed no less than three goals. After Souleymane Diawara’s header cancelled out Miralem Pjanic’s opener, Sidney Govou took the matter into his own hands and scored a beautiful goal after slaloming through Marseille’s defence virtually unchallenged. OM, nevertheless, managed to level the score in the dying moments of the first half when Lloris couldn’t save Benoit Cheyrou’s tame effort.
The second half was even more exciting than the first even though Marseille looked to be on the course to victory when they went two goals up thanks to Kone and Brandao. With just ten minutes to go, Lyon were in a difficult situation but they responded in beautiful manner by overturning the deficit through Lisandro Lopez (2) and Bastos. However, the game was not over since Toulalan’s own goal deep into the injury time gifted the visitors a deserved point in what was one of the most exciting matches in Ligue 1 history.
Even though neither manager is likely to be happy with their side conceding five goals, the fans were and are probably still delighted with the beautiful performance at Gerland. This was a real triumph of football and it certainly gives us hope that more derby games will be like the last OL-OM match.
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