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The 3rd position in L1 has caused a new victim: forced to go through the 3rd opening round of the Champions League, OM fell on Tuesday to Panathinaikos after a tight but successful back pass, continuing a long French run at this level of the competition. .
A stroke of fate
“We can say that fate played tricks on us,” summed up Marseille’s new coach, Marcelino. “For me it’s easy to analyse the game, but it’s difficult to justify the result. We deserve to have scored even more “It would have been logical, since we were superior,” he added.
In fact, Tuesday’s result has a detail of irrationality. Superior to Panathinaikos and very hot in the first half and in extra time, OM had many chances but only wasted two.
It was also necessary an accumulation of contrary playing facts: two still canceled for offside, a penalty denied to Guendouzi in extra time, awarded to the Greeks in the last seconds after the intervention of the VAR, a shot by Vitinha rejected on the opposite line. . . – for Marseille to find a way not to definitively dismiss Panathinaikos.
“If we play qualifying ten times, we pass times,” captain Valentin Rongier said after the match.
The weight of the outward journey
The analyses of Marcelino and Rongier are valid and this well-controlled and undone lap in an exceptional environment may have been enough for the OM.
But the Provençal club, despite everything, paid the price for its poor first leg, which it lost 1-0 in Athens, when a half-preparation match was played and not a direct elimination.
On Tuesday at the Velodrome, we saw and understood where Marcelino intended to pass with his 4-4-2, when the Athenians were tormented by the ball provocations at the feet of Ismaïla Sarr, Azzedine Ounahi, Iliman Ndiaye or Amine Harit. The entire battalion of OM elimination players.
In Athens, on the other hand, OM is too timid and academic, in search of rhythm and automatisms. “There was a very bad game in the first leg,” Longoria admitted.
Since his arrival, Marcellin has repeated that he ran out of time and stayed in Athens. From this point of view, duty is collective.
The departure of Igor Tudor in early June forced Longoria and his right-hand man, Javier Ribalta, to change their tune. But by opting for a coach with very different tastes and orchestrating a new window of hyperactive movements, they have contributed to weakening their team.
The default C3
Hot, marked by elimination, the Marseillais were no more motivated than in the Europa League, whose group stage will play from September. Their Champions League ends this year on August 15 and that’s not the project.
This elimination is a reminder that the French reach their threshold of competition when they face the initial rounds of the C1: in the last 10 seasons, the L1 has touched seven times and. . . only a success, with Monaco in 2016.
Annoying for the symbol of French football, Tuesday’s dismissal is also annoying for OM, although Longoria has focused on conveying the idea that Marseille’s finances were in jeopardy.
“The difference between C1 and C3 is not so much,” he said before the deficit of between 15 and 20 million euros between both events.
“Naturally, there is a difference in prestige, for our fans, our team, our sponsors. Adjust the season a bit but the projects are the same, “he still acknowledged.
According to him, this elimination does not force OM to sell players in the move window, but it will be more confusing to attract new players.