Rennes and Marseille won the Europa League on Thursday, respectively against Panathinaikos (2-1) and AEK Athens (3-1). No miracle for Toulouse swept away at Anfield (1-5).
Rather positive evening for French clubs in the Europa League, Thursday October 26. Facing Greek clubs was successful for OM and Rennes, respectively winners of AEK Athens (3-1) and Panathinaikos (2-1). The two French representatives took the opportunity to regain the lead of their group. For its part, Toulouse played its luck bravely but the gap was too great against Liverpool (1-5). Note that in the Europa Conference League, Lille suffered but ended up winning against Slovan Bratislava (2-1).
Toulouse sinks to Liverpool but remains third
By going to Liverpool, TFC and its supporters could expect two things: to rediscover the intoxicating atmosphere of football evenings at Anfield and to suffer against Jürgen Klopp’s Reds. Not ridiculous, the Toulouse team still lost heavily and conceded their first defeat in European competition this season (1-5). After Diogo Jota opened the score for Liverpool following a solo number (9th), Toulouse believed they could hold on after Thijs Dallinga’s equalizer (16th).
But despite the saves of Guillaume Restes (14th, 27th, 56th), Toulouse conceded twice in four minutes on goals from Wataru Endo (30th) and Darwin Nunez (34th). Ryan Gravenberch (65th) and Mohamed Salah (90th + 3) worsened the score. The Violets can have slight regrets due to the immense failure of Gabriel Suazo, who failed to score despite a wide open goal (47th), which could have reignited the suspense. Qualification remains possible for TFC, third in its group with four points, behind Liverpool and Union Saint-Gilloise. The Toulouse will meet the Reds in two weeks for the return match.
Marseille takes the lead in its group…
After two draws in two days, OM have their first victory. In front of the crowd at the Vélodrome stadium, Gennaro Gattuso’s players defeated AEK Athens (3-1), not without difficulty. The Marseillais had however started well, with the first goal in two months from their attacker Vitinha (27th). But the start of the second half was sluggish and the Greeks posed serious problems for the Phocaeans before equalizing through Orbelin Pineda (53rd).
Marseille was finally able to count on Cican Stankovic’s huge error. The AEK goalkeeper was, in quick succession, the author of a poor restart, then mowed down Vitinha in the area, before collecting a red card. Amine Harit then converted the penalty (60th), a few minutes before that scored by Jordan Veretout (69th). Thanks to this success, OM took the lead in Group B ahead of AEK (2nd), Brighton (3rd) and Ajax Amsterdam (4th).
…like Stade Rennais
Panathinaikos having eliminated OM from the race for the Champions League at the very start of the season, Rennes was warned: the task would not be easy when they traveled to Athens. Bruno Génésio’s players, with courage, managed to obtain victory thanks to Amine Gouiri’s goal at the start of the match (7th) and the brilliant inspiration of Arnaud Kalimuendo, author of a madjer after returning from the locker room ( 49th).
Long dominated in this match, Rennes relied on Steve Mandanda, author of several saves (24th, 41st, 42nd), but who was unable to repel Fotis Ioannidis’ penalty after a foul by Lorenz Assignon (61st) . After three days, Rennes has six points and occupies first place in group F, which it owes in particular to the fact that the other group match between Villarreal and Maccabi Haifa was postponed, due to the war between Hamas and Israel.