Olympique de Marseille welcomed AS Monaco—the side who pipped them to a Champions League place last season—in Ligue 1 on Sunday evening in France’s heavyweight fixture.
OM started the season dreadfully, but have begun to find their feet after Michel came in and steadied the ship following Marcelo Bielsa’s departure.
Marseille suffered a setback recently with a 1-0 away defeat to Southern rivals OGC Nice, but rediscovered their stride last weekend with a convincing 2-0 away triumph over Saint-Etienne.
However, they faced a sterner test in Monaco, who have lost only three games this season and began the day in seventh place.
Last season’s success at ASM was built on a sturdy defence, although having already been breached 18 times, it’s clear that a series of departures have taken their toll on the once watertight backline.
They conceded once again on Sunday as Romain Alessandrini capitalised on some poor defending by Wallace to fire past Danijel Subasic.
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However, OM were unable to hold onto their lead for long, with Almamy Toure converting past Steve Mandanda from close range following a Fabio Coentrao free kick.
Toure gave Monaco the lead before the break after Mandanda’s poor clearance.
However, Marseille responded through Michy Batshuayi, who fired home from close range, and while Coentrao gave the visitors the lead when he headed past Mandanda, Georges-Kevin Nkoudou struck late to rescue a point for Michel’s improving Phoceens.
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