The Phocaeans were shaken up in Spain on Thursday, but were able to rest on the very comfortable mattress of four goals acquired in the first leg.
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Seven years after reveling in the misfortunes of the Parisian rival in the Champions League, the people of Marseille came close to suffering their own comeback. Largely dominated in the round of 16 second leg of the Europa League by Villarreal (3-1), Thursday March 14, the OM players came close to being forced to play extra time when they had four goals to spare. advance thanks to their performance in the first leg.
Jean-Louis Gasset’s men perhaps rested a little too much on this very comfortable mattress, which was still enough to cushion the impact of this completely missed evening at La Ceramica. But it will be difficult to forget the terrible tension at the end of the match which saw the players of the “Yellow Submarine” waste several cartridges to bring the score to 4-0 and snatch extra time.
Last ten minutes of chaos
The Marseillais will be able to thank Pau Lopez, author of a decisive save in added time, and Jonathan Clauss who saved the honor at the very end of the match and avoided the risk of historic disillusionment (90th + 4). If the outcome is positive, it will not erase the very worrying content of the first defeat of the Jean-Louis Gasset era. Borrowed, his players will have spent the match on the ropes enduring attacks from opponents who they probably did not expect to be so valiant.
Villarreal believed in their chances from the kick-off and, by insisting on the Marseille goal, did not take much time to be rewarded. Exactly 31 minutes, when Frenchman Etienne Capoue appeared to head a perfect cross from Kiko Femenia to open the scoring. Particularly restless, constantly going beyond his duties, the midfielder posed a lot of problems for the Marseille rearguard. Jonathan Clauss will undoubtedly have bitter memories of the dance steps that Capoue forced him to do, before suffering a big bridge, during an action in the first period.
OM had an opportunity to stop the bleeding earlier but wasted it. Returning from the locker room, at 1-0, incoming Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang missed a face-to-face with goalkeeper Filip Jorgensen (48th). Behind, Villarreal made the break thanks to an outside shot from Alexander Sorloth (54th), first invalidated for offside then validated by the VAR.
Marseille continued to suffer and the score rose to 3-0 when the unfortunate man of the first leg, Yerson Mosquera, headed a free kick (85th). Despite an extremely tense last ten minutes, OM ended up punching their ticket for the C3 quarter-finals. A stadium that the Marseille club had not reached since 2018 and the epic journey until the final. He will know his opponent on Friday, following the draw at 1 p.m.