The watchword of the evening, on the Olympique de Marseille side, will undoubtedly be “frustration“. A term used from the final whistle, Wednesday, September 7 after the defeat against Tottenham in the Champions League (0-2), by Jordan Veretout at the microphone of Canal +: “There is frustration of course, after the first period. We had the ball, we had possession, we managed to put them in difficulty“.
But as the Marseille community has so rightly pointed out, the “red (by Chancel Mbemba, at the start of the second period) change everything“. Interesting in the first period on the lawn of a Tottenham team which occupies 3rd place in the Premier League, Marseille began their C1 campaign with intentions. The English camp was thus stormed by the Phocaeans during the second half. entire first 45 minutes.
“It is necessary to retain the first period which is positive. We looked for them high, we put the impact and we prevented them from developing their game. Apart from Kane’s strike, they did nothing“, underlined Jordan Veretout. The intense pressing at the loss of the ball, combined with the good spurts of the three centrals (Chancel Mbemba, Éric Bailly and Samuel Gigot), was at the origin of this first controlled act on the part of the Marseillais Who ultimately only lacked sharpness in the final opposing third.
Weighed down by the expulsion of Mbemba after a good first half, the Marseillais ended up giving in on Wednesday in the last quarter of an hour of the match against Tottenham (0-2). #TOTOMhttps://t.co/EIRX13J4rl
— francetvsport (@francetvsport) September 7, 2022
“It was perhaps necessary to try more, to make more strikes. There are positive things to remember tonight anyway“, judged Valentin Rongier. The Marseille captain – in the absence of Dimitri Payet, left on the bench by Igor Tudor -, is right: OM only scored one shot, a distant attempt by Mattéo Guendouzi in end of the first period Marseille will therefore be able to retain desire, determination and aggressiveness from this meeting, but will have to do better in front of the opposing goals in the next match.
“We knew that by playing with intensity and being serious, we could compete with this kind of team. But in the end, it’s zero points“, concluded the Marseille captain, visibly disappointed with the scenario of the match. After their match against Lille at home on Saturday, in Ligue 1, the Tudor players will have to use the same ingredients next Tuesday, at the Stade Vélodrome against Eintracht Frankfurt. With Alexis Sanchez this time: enough to feed the hope of gleaning their first points in this Champions League campaign.