One would have thought that a step had finally been taken. For the first time in eleven years, Olympique de Marseille played, Tuesday, November 1, a match which could have opened the doors to the knockout stages of the Champions League. But, against Tottenham, the gala evening did not have the expected outcome. Beaten by the English club in their Vélodrome stadium (1-2), OM finished in last place in their group for their third consecutive campaign in C1, after 2013-2014 and 2020-2021.
Above all, we will remember this grotesque end to the match which saw the players of Igor Tudor being punished by a goal at the last second after having rushed headlong to try to snatch victory. Admittedly, they were already virtually eliminated from the Champions League, but at this moment, they occupied third place, synonymous with transfer to the Europa League, thanks to Frankfurt’s victory against Sporting (1-2).
“We can only blame ourselves. We should not have gone into the collision. There was a misunderstanding. We communicated poorly between us, with the noise and everyone who was making gestures. It’s totally our fault.”assumed Mattéo Guendouzi at the microphone of Canal +, after this defeat which completely changed the face of the season for OM and which will weigh down the UEFA index of French football, while two Portuguese clubs will compete in the knockout phase (Porto and Benfica).
…#OMTOT #UCL pic.twitter.com/oWGcUqveWS
– CANAL+ Foot (@CanalplusFoot) November 1, 2022
Communication problems with the staff? A simple question “details“As Amine Harit put it? One thing is certain, Tuesday night’s defeat was not the first misstep of the season for OM, who could consider themselves lucky to still have the opportunity to After being spared in the draw, after losing their two games against Eintracht Frankfurt (0-1, 1-2), and after being scuttled in the first leg against Tottenham (0-2), the Marseillais could still finish first in their group.
They could also thank Sporting for having completely missed out on their two confrontations (4-1, 2-0), offering 140 minutes of numerical superiority to Marseille in total. These two successes have masked a large part of the shortcomings of Igor Tudor’s team, which no longer puts one foot in front of the other in Ligue 1. After falling at home against promoted Ajaccio (1-2), in the Classic against the Parisian rival (0-1) and against a direct competitor for Europe, Lens (0-1), this OM remained on a completely ruined match against Strasbourg on Saturday (2-2 after leading 2-0).
At the time when his training chained a fifth meeting without success in all competitions (1 draw, 4 defeats), Igor Tudor continued to apply the Coué method in a press conference: “Whether [Kolasinac marque de la tête], we are still in the Champions League. We had a good match against a very strong opponent, but it wasn’t enough. Right now it’s not working in our favor and football isn’t even giving us a bit of what we deserve.”. In addition to not being aligned with that of his players, this speech could have a limited lifespan on the Canebière.