The draw between OM and Brighton on Thursday (2-2) was again subject to controversy regarding the refereeing.
In these times, Olympique de Marseille would have done without this. Although this type of controversy can also camouflage other problems… Still, since the start of the season, the theme of arbitration has regularly come up on the table when it comes to discussing the poor performances of the Marseille club.
No one has forgotten Michael Oliver’s frustrating decisions in the Champions League play-off second leg against Panathinaikos. This Thursday, it was the same feeling of frustration that animated the Marseillais after their confrontation with Brighton. The Ukrainian Mykola Balakin was clearly singled out for his contentious decisions. He could have whistled a penalty for an obvious foul on Amine Harit at the start of the second act (47th). He could and should also have expelled Tariq Lamptey, author of a dangerous and gross foul on the attacking midfielder (51st). A fact of play far from trivial since the same Lamptey was decisive in the last minutes.
Rongier’s heartfelt cry
In this context, several OM players did not hide their anger after the final whistle, starting with Valentin Rongier. “Arbitration? What do you want me to tell you? Of course I share it, this feeling, especially when we concede the goal following that. I asked him to simply protect the players. He tells me that the player touches the ball, but hey, he tears his ankle behind. Afterwards, we are not finding excuses. I think there are people who can talk about it better than me. But of course, it’s annoying. »
Besides Rongier, Jordan Veretout was even more vehement. “It’s red! He steps on him. He can break his foot, we’re too nice, we get fooled and we don’t say anything”. Same story for Gennaro Gattuso. “What was VAR doing? We see a big shot on Amine with blood. It’s more an error from the VAR than from the referee.. But it was Amine Harit who seemed best placed to comment on this made of game. “I don’t know if the red is obvious. He touches the ball and the ankle. The video must be used to monitor goals and these types of fouls. The refereeing didn’t help us. We don’t want to rest on that. We must move forward. I think it was red. I feel more pain. It’s a blow. I’m lucky because it didn’t turn out much. I think it will be okay”.
