Villarreal draw against Olympique de Marseille with Ekambi scoring his first goal
Villarreal picked up a draw against Olympique de Marseille (1-1) in a tough preseason test. Villarreal’s only goal of the game was scored by French-Cameroonian striker, Toko Ekambi, which was his first goal for the Yellow Submarine. In this second friendly match, Javi Calleja’s side were better than their opponents once again, having most of the possession and controlling the tempo of the game. Villarreal left a great impression on the pitch against last year’s UEFA Europa League finalists.
The opening minutes were dictated by the Yellows. From the start, the Submarine dominated possession and set the tempo in a match that Olympique de Marseille’s game plan looked to be to play deep and wait for their chance to surprise Villarreal on the counterattack.
Despite the Yellows’ dominance, Villarreal did not have many goal scoring opportunities until midway through the first half. Samu Castillejo had a great chance to open the scoring after Jaume Costa put a great ball in from the left wing, but his effort was off target.
The work off the ball and the mobility of the Yellow forwards, Gerard Moreno and Toko Ekambi, gave wings to Javi Calleja’s side, who alternated between long spells of possession and quick counterattacking play. In the 40th minute, the French-Cameroonian striker forced Pelé to make a fantastic save that prevented the Submarine from taking the lead.
Just before the break, Villarreal, who had more than enough chances to have already opened the scoring, finally broke the deadlock. The man to do so was Toko Ekambi, who scored past the French keeper with a first time shot from a perfectly weighted through ball by Manu Morlanes.
After the break, Javi Calleja put on a completely different eleven to those that played in the first half. At the start of the second half, Olympique de Marseille came out strong and forced Villarreal back into their own half. The Submarine reacted though and caught the French side on the break. In the 56th minute, Leo Suárez could not quite beat Pelé, his shot off target after some great play and an assist by Nicola Sansone.
In the 63rd minute, Germain equalized for the home side, placing his shot into the bottom corner from inside the box.
After Marseille’s goal, Villarreal tried to turn the game back in their favor and they could have done just that halfway through the second half. The ball fell to Mario Gaspar out wide on the edge of the box and his shot across goal narrowly missed the far post. From then on there was no luck for the Yellows in the final minutes, they could not find the goal to seal the win and so came away with a draw in a match against a competitive and demanding Olympique de Marseille.
Lineups:
Olympique de Marseille: Pelé; Sarr, Hubocan, Abdennour, Rocchia; Anguissa, Luiz Gustavo, Sanson, Payet, Njie; and Germain.
Also played: Mitroglou, Maxime López, Florian Chabrolle, Alexandre Philiponeu and Nassim Ahmed.
Villarreal CF: Asenjo; Miguelón, Álvaro, Víctor Ruiz, Jaume Costa; Cáseres, Morlanes, Nahuel, S. Castillejo; Gerard and Toko Ekambi.
Also played: Barbosa; Mario, Bonera, Funes Mori, A. Marín; Leo Suárez, Fornals, Ramiro, Cazorla; Raba and Sansone.
Goals: 0-1. Min. 42: Toko Ekambi. 1-1. Min. 63: Germain.
Referee: Karim Abed (France). Cautioned: Mario Gaspar.
Stadium: Stade de Fargues.
