Abdelli escapes red card then seals OM victory at Troyes with penalty

Himad Abdelli narrowly escaped expulsion before becoming the hero of the evening: the Olympique de Marseille midfielder scored the second goal from the penalty spot in the 90+8th minute to seal OM’s success at Troyes (0-2), Sunday, in a match marked by a highly controversial refereeing decision.

As early as the tenth minute, Abdelli arrived in the Troyes penalty area and raised his foot dangerously high, striking Iron Gomis in the face. Referee Guillaume Paradis opted for a simple verbal warning, without showing any card. A leniency that immediately sparked controversy.

Adil Rami, former OM central defender and 2018 World Cup winner, did not mince words. “He deserved the red card. I really thought he was going to show red based on the logic of referees we see worldwide. Whether he saw it or not, it’s a high foot and he catches the face. After that, there’s the referee’s common sense to avoid killing the match with a red, but for me, it’s red,” said the former international.

The paradox of the evening lies in the fact that Abdelli, spared in the tenth minute, was precisely the one who ended the suspense late in the match. His penalty conversion in added time definitively ended any hope of a Troyes comeback.

For ESTAC, which suffered a fourth consecutive defeat, striker Jérémy Le Douaron did not address the refereeing controversy after the final whistle. “A lot of frustration. We wanted to break this run of three defeats, we failed to do it. We had a more than decent first half but the goal early in the second hurt us,” he summarized, pointing more to his team’s lack of offensive efficiency than to the referee’s decisions.