Marseille (AFP)

Olympique de Marseille missed the opportunity to take the lead in Ligue 1 by being held at home by Montpellier (1-1) on Saturday, and especially lost Boubacar Kamara and Dimitri Payet, excluded late in the game .

OM will not have dizzy heights. It fails at a length of the Paris SG, leader expected in Lyon Sunday (21:00) for the shock of the 6th day.

The operation is not bad, after three straight victories, but Kamara and Payet's red cards are spoiling her.

"Bouba" was excluded at the same time as the Jordan Ferri from Montpellier for an altercation (90 + 2), then "Dim" for having, apparently, words with the referee Amaury Delerue (90 + 3) .

Payet will miss the trip to Dijon on Tuesday, for which Kamara was already suspended. His partner in hinge, Alvaro Gonzalez, was injured early in the game and will also be absent.

André Villas-Boas will have to innovate in central hinge in Burgundy, with Duje Caleta-Car, entered in place of the Spaniard, and perhaps the young Lucas Perrin.

Before this end of stormy match, OM has long stumbled against the Montpellier hedgehog, as well organized as feared Villas-Boas.

Falling from a goal against his camp Bouna Sarr (17 csc), Marseille has long run after the score before equalizing by Valere Germain (74), saving a point.

- Alvaro hurt -

The Montpellier have missed the feat, but they confirmed that they remained very difficult to play, one week after their nice win against Nice (2-1).

They may miss both goals denied to Andy Delort for offside (11, 52), but they still suffered a lot.

Ignoring the heavy rain showering the Vélodrome, OM crackled from the start and could have scored by Maxime Lopez (3) or Valère Germain (8) without the intervention of Geronimo Rulli, the Argentinian goalkeeper of Montpellier.

But after a first alert, a goal denied by the video to Andy Delort, offside of a knee (11), the realism of La Paillade punished OM. Bouna Sarr propelled in his goal a powerful center of Florent Mollet, who had just stolen the ball to a Jordan Amavi too passive (18).

The match had already started badly for Marseille, who had lost Alvaro in the 8th minute, hit a thigh.

The Phoceans were also deprived of Hiroki Sakai, still not recovered from his left calf injury and again relayed by Bouna Sarr to the post-right.

Led to the score, OM has long raged in a game of sterile possession, too much to spin the ball without taking a chance, even near the goal of Rulli. He seemed caught in the trap of Montpellier, so comfortable in cons.

At the end of one of them, Delort still went to beat Mandanda, but he was this time more clearly offside (52).

OM has never been very threatening. Bouna Sarr missed his centers, Dimitri Payet procrastinated too much and Maxime Lopez lacked precision. Morgan Sanson, the most bleeding for an hour, eventually dropped.

But the opening came from his replacement, Nemanja Radonjic, who entered the 67th minute. Shifted by Payet, who was right this time to procrastinate, the Serb saw his center countered propelled into the goal by Valère Germain (74).

OM pushed again, but Rulli remained intractable, as on this strike from Payet (81). Then at the end of the match the Marseillais lost their heads, doubly.

© 2019 AFP