A week after their benchmark victory in the Champions League, against Sporting (4-1), and four days after their first defeat of the season in Ligue 1 (2-1 against Ajaccio), OM are playing their survival in the Ligue des champions, Wednesday, October 12, traveling to Lisbon. In the event of victory, or defeat, the Olympians could see their season switch to one side or another.
The meeting against the Portuguese offers the Phocaeans the opportunity to confirm their success in the first leg and to get back into the race for qualification in the round of 16 of C1. They are also only one point from second place in their group. On the other hand, a defeat would seriously complicate the situation when this team had room in a group made up of affordable opponents: Eintracht Frankfurt, Tottenham and therefore Sporting.
“We play every three days, every game is a final, admitted Nuno Tavares at a press conference on Tuesday, October 11. We have a lot of physical and mental fatigue, we have to concentrate, try to do our best.”Players don’t think like that. You don’t have to think like that, tempered Igor Tudor. We have to play well. There is no final, there is no life or death. It’s sport, you have to play well tomorrow, we’ll try to do our best.”
The group selected by Igor Tudor for the trip to Lisbon in @ChampionsLeague#UCL pic.twitter.com/9TVN7MkXrQ
– Olympique de Marseille (@OM_Officiel) October 11, 2022
Especially since last week, Sporting CP played 67 minutes shorthanded. “Sporting are a very good team. For 25 minutes, we played 11 against 11 and they showed a lot of quality. They are a very experienced team”has also warned the Croatian coach.
Contrary to Marseille habits, the evening result in the Champions League could give a more positive color to the rest of the season. “It’s two games [Sporting et le PSG] very important but we are focused on tomorrow and then we will see, clarified Igor Tudor. When you are used to this kind of matches, even as players, you have to take it as a challenge.”
Until the truce of the World Cup, the calendar of Olympique de Marseille will indeed get tougher. First the Classic, Sunday October 17 against Paris Saint-Germain, before receiving Lens, a direct competitor for European places. Then, OM will end their Champions League group stage with the reception of Eintracht Frankfurt and a trip to Tottenham. In the league, the Olympians will travel to Strasbourg and Monaco and will receive a new Lyon, Laurent Blanc version.
Author of the best start to the season in its history in Ligue 1 after seven games (19 points, six wins and a draw), Marseille will be able to know at the time of the World Cup cut whether his departure was not a flash in the pan, or so give credence to the thesis that his calendar was particularly lenient at the start of the season. After ten days of the championship, OM have only faced three teams currently in the first half of the classification (Clermont, Lille and Rennes).
The road will suddenly rise for Olympique de Marseille. To approach it with the confidence stored up against Sporting would be the best way to approach an important week in the Provençal season.