Reversed in the Europa League Conference, Olympique de Marseille is taking a step towards qualifying for the quarter-finals of the new European competition. The Marseillais won at home against a fairly weak Basel team (2-1) on Thursday March 10. The addition could have been more full-bodied for the Swiss, very little dangerous, but who took advantage of the lack of realism of the Phocaeans.
While Jorge Sampaoli, who had asked his players to “wet the shirt” after the defeat against Monaco, was greeted with a few whistles by the public at the Orange Vélodrome, OM delivered a convincing performance against Basel . Largely dominating, the Marseillais monopolized the ball, with 70% possession, to attack the Basel goal. But as usual, the Whites and Blues were sorely lacking in efficiency.
OM, who settled in the Swiss camp, got a lot of chances, with in particular a post from Cengiz Ünder at the start of the game. In the 20th minute of play, Arkadiusz Milik came to reward, on penalty, the good start to the Marseille match. But it was then necessary to wait until the 68th minute for the Marseille club to widen the gap, again thanks to the Pole. Meanwhile, Sampaoli’s men were too clumsy and may regret this lack of efficiency, with only 4 shots on target out of 20 attempts.
5 – Arkadiusz Milik became the first OM player to score in 5 consecutive matches in European competition (excluding the preliminary rounds) since Jean-Pierre Papin between 1988 and 1989 (5 also). Grantatakan. #OMFCB #UECL pic.twitter.com/djIE1FIPFg
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) March 10, 2022
The Marseillais will regret this lack of realism all the more since they saw FC Basel reduce the gap in the 80th. The Swiss, technically limited, worried Steve Mandanda, who started on Thursday evening, very little, except in the last ten minutes. Boosted by their goal, which could have been disallowed for offside if the VAR had been present, the Basel could even have taken advantage of a disagreement between Valentin Rongier and his goalkeeper to equalize.
At the end of the meeting, Jorge Sampaoli felt that his team should have won more broadly: “When we analyze all of this, I think we will see the big difference there was between the two teams. I think that difference could have resulted in at least a four-goal difference.”
With this narrow victory, the Marseillais are still on waivers for qualifying for the quarter-finals. In order not to tremble, as at the end of the match Thursday evening, they will have to be more effective during the return, Thursday March 17 at 6:45 p.m., even in the absence of Dimitri Payet, who will be suspended after receiving a yellow card.