They thought they had done the hardest part, before Jean-Eudes Alohou came to ruin everything in two minutes. Held in check (2-2) by Strasbourg, the Marseillais lost valuable points in the race for the podium behind PSG. For Igor Tudor and his players, the pill is hard to pass.
At a press conference, the Croatian coach felt that his team had been “seriously penalized by the refereeing in the last two matches”. He notably returned to the expulsion of Leonardo Balerdi at the half-hour mark, following the contact of his defender on the Strasbourg striker Habib Diallo, launched in depth towards the Marseille goal.
“I think that today, the important element is the red card, insisted Tudor. The referee made a mistake and for me it’s a non-existent red. As a former player (and defender), I know the difference between a touch and a push. There, he just touched it and the referee couldn’t tell the difference. In the previous match (win at Rennes 1-0), we missed a penalty on Sanchez. My team has been seriously penalized in the last two matches. »
“Sometimes the best way to defend is to move forward”
Apart from refereeing issues, Tudor spoke of “great disappointment” in the locker room after this draw: “It’s regrettable. At 2-0, we thought it was done, but in fact it was not. We took a point and we are one point ahead of Monaco. We have to take this point and look ahead. ” Chancel Mbemba, the first scorer (49th), confirms: “It’s our fault, regretted the defender. It’s a lack of concentration because we managed our game well. It hurts but we raise our heads. »
For Jonathan Clauss, the frustration is also great: “Frustrated, annoyed, inevitably, reacts the former Lensois on Prime Video. We make a very average start, we take this red which hurts us. We change things at the end, it disturbs us and distracts us a little. These two goals in quick succession hurt a lot. There is a lot of frustration. We could have continued to look forward. We curled up on ourselves a bit, saying to ourselves that we wanted to keep the score. Sometimes the best way to defend is to move forward. But here it is, it’s done, it’s done (…) We missed five minutes. »
Valentin Rongier, his teammate in midfield, in turn notes the relaxation of his team: “Inevitably, we are upset, launched the former Nantes player. I feel like we kind of always make the same mistakes, especially right now and we can’t afford it. Tonight we had a big opportunity. We take this red card, we will not go back on it. We were 2-0, we had done the job. We have to keep the score and we didn’t succeed. »
