Jorge Sampaoli had already hated his team's 3-1 Europa League Conference victory on Thursday against Qarabag, regretting the lack of control of his players.

They had a little more Sunday against Clermont but were terribly ineffective and the Argentinian technician definitely had a bad week.

Of course, OM remain second, but Nice's victory against Angers brings the Azureans down to just one length.

Strasbourg (4th) is four points behind, Rennes (5th) six, and OM don't have much room.

Clermont, on the other hand, breathes better.

Fifteenth, the Auvergnats have a mattress of six points on the red zone.

Before Sunday's defeat, the Marseille week had revolved a lot around Milik's moods and Sampaoli's fairly fresh responses.

The rest will tell if this "case" is poison for OM, but the Pole was in any case very present at the kick-off, like Kolasinac, a little-used rookie from the transfer window.

Impassable Djoco

It was on the side of the Bosnian, this left side which has remained a permanent site for a year at OM, that the first Clermont goal arrived.

Hountondji launched Zedadka into the huge space left behind by Gerson and Kolasinac and the Clermont side served Bayo back (1-0, 13th).

This victorious shot was the only one for the visitors for a very long time, but it was enough to put Marseille in difficulty.

As against Angers, the last opponent faced at the Vélodrome, OM were therefore quickly led.

Against the SCO, the Marseillais had even conceded two goals before reacting, but they had reacted (5-2).

On Sunday, they at most upped the pace a little around the half-hour mark, but very quickly fell back into their recurring fault of a very lateral game and without taking much risk.

Clermont striker Mohamed Bayo has just opened the scoring against Marseille at the Stade Vélodrome on February 20, 2022 Christophe SIMON AFP

Before the break, Under still threatened Djoco after a superb job by Lirola (30th), before a fine strike from Payet, well dismissed by the Clermont goalkeeper (38th).

But the whole was very insufficient and Clermont did not really shake.

The pressure, however, was greater after the break.

Djoco was again very good in front of Rongier (56th) then against Under in the next minute and the Clermont goalkeeper, unbeatable, again intervened with extreme accuracy in front of Milik after one of the best Marseille actions of the match (76th) .

Big and small

At that time, Bamba Dieng, hailed like the other African champion Pape Gueye by a tifo representing the flag of Senegal, had entered and OM were really trying to get at least one point.

Gerson, who has now played in half a dozen different positions this season, even finished left-back, and Marseille pushed.

But Provencal shots were too far, too soft or too deflected.

Marseille midfielder Mattéo Guendouzi is dominated in the duel by Clermont defender Cédric Hountondji at the Vélodrome, February 20, 2022 Christophe SIMON AFP

OM leaned even further forward in the last ten minutes with the exit of Lirola, replaced by Luis Henrique, who was then the fourth Marseille striker on the pitch, in addition to Payet.

It did not help much and it was on the contrary Clermont who doubled the bet, the "small" Allevinah (1.72 m) taking the best of the head on the beefy Gerson (2-0, 84th ).

This story of big and small sticks quite well to the Marseille season, which lost a lot of points at home against the modest ones, with draws against Reims and Metz and setbacks against Brest and now Clermont.

© 2022 AFP