Despite being number 2 this season, Olympique de Marseille goalkeeper Steve Mandanda has again proven his worth in recent weeks. During the quarter-final second leg of the Europa League Conference on the lawn of PAOK Salonika (1-0) on Thursday, the Marseille goalkeeper was excellent.
Steve Mandanda was excellent in Greece.
Steve Mandanda is not a legend of Olympique de Marseille for nothing! Considered one of the best goalkeepers in the history of the Marseille club, the French international is not having an easy season as a substitute behind incumbent Pau Lopez.
But thanks to the career of the current 2nd in Ligue 1 in the Europa League Conference, the 37-year-old goalkeeper has played matches in recent weeks on the European stage.
Mandanda pattern size in Greece!
Already up to the task in the previous rounds against Qarabag (3-1, 3-0) and FC Ble (2-1, 2-1) then during the quarter-final first leg against PAOK Salonika (2-1), the captain de l’OM was still exemplary on the lawn of the Greek formation (1-0) Thursday during the return leg. Boosted by his good match against Montpellier (2-0) on Sunday in Ligue 1, Mandanda simply pulled out all the stops to disgust Razvan Lucescu’s men.
Author of 5 parades (his record since September 2019), the Marseillais prevented the slightest PAOK revolt with in particular superb interventions on his line in front of Chuba Akpom, Jos Crespo, Andrija Zivkovic, Sverrir Ingi Ingason or Alexandru Mitrita. Logically, the Habs were named man of the match by the editorial staff of Maxifoot with a score of 8.5/10 (see Dbrief and Notes here).
great mental strength
A performance also underlines by his teammate Matto Guendouzi. Steve is the team captain. He is used to this kind of matches and we feel that with him we were very calm. We saw clearly, following his first stops, that no ball would return. Because when he plays like that, he’s fantastic. He’s the man of the match, he was excellent and we need this kind of players to achieve our goalsappreciated the middle loaned by Arsenal for W9.
In an exercise that was far from easy for him, Mandanda is showing great strength of character with his recent performances. Without necessarily shaking up the hierarchy established by his trainer Jorge Sampaoli, the former Le Havre player gives a more positive note to his season. Still much appreciated by the Marseille supporters, the native of Kinshasa has clearly not finished shining in the cage of OM!
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