Marseille players celebrate their victory at the end of their Europa League quarter-final second leg against Benfica Lisbon, at the Stade-Vélodrome, April 18, 2024. DANIEL COLE / AP
Olympique de Marseille (OM) has not yet completed its 2023-2024 report. And the Marseille club can still dream of a happy ending. By qualifying, Thursday, April 18, for the semi-finals of the Europa League at the end of a stifling match against Benfica Lisbon (1-0, 4 shots on goal to 2), he offered himself emotion , happiness and a financial bonus which partly saves a chaotic season which, without it, could have turned out to be disastrous.
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Left behind in the Ligue 1 championship (they are in ninth place with six games to play) the Olympians are allowing themselves – as in 2018 when they reached the final against Atlético de Madrid – an adventure in the “small” European Cup, an odyssey in the form of a breath of fresh air. In the next round, on May 2 and 9, they will face the Italians Atalanta Bergamo, surprising defeaters of the English favorite Liverpool; the first leg will be played in Marseille. “It’s a competition that suits us well. We dream of everything,” Marseille coach Jean-Louis Gasset slipped greedily at the end of the match.
On August 15, 2023, OM were ejected from the Champions League in the preliminary round by the Greeks Panathinaikos, although they were well within reach. The founding episode of a difficult season where the club changed coaches twice and suffered a series of disappointments.
Nine months later, we believed that the scenario was going to repeat itself in an unstoppable loop of destiny. Unable to kill the match in regulation time, defeated during extra time by the Portuguese in porcupine mode, the Marseille squad was once again pushed to the dramatic penalty shootout. But this time, buoyed by their audience, the Olympians did not give in. Their first four shooters all succeeded in their attempt while, for Benfica, the former Paris Saint-Germain player Angel Di Maria, criticized throughout the match, missed his. The Stade-Vélodrome could capsize in hysteria and celebrate its players for very long minutes.
Relive the emotions of 2018
“I am proud of them, of the state of mind, of the public, of Marseille. It beautifies a season. You are semi-finalists [d’une coupe d’Europe] by eliminating three titled clubs [Donetsk, Villarreal et Benfica]. It’s an epic. We can go as far as possible”Jean-Louis Gasset still projected himself, after the meeting.
Olympians Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Faris Moumbagna and Gaël Lafont celebrate their victory during the quarter-final second leg of the Europa League, at the Stade-Vélodrome, April 18, 2024. SYLVAIN THOMAS / AFP
Until the 78th minute and the only goal of the match, scored by Faris Moumbagna, a rookie who arrived during the winter and so far disappointing, this OM-Benfica will nevertheless have been the poorest of the European cup quarter-finals ever contested on the pitch of the Stade-Vélodrome. Between Marseillais who are extremely cautious and weakened by the absences of several starters, including the French international Jonathan Clauss, and the Portuguese who came with the sole hope of safeguarding their goal lead acquired in the first leg in Lisbon (2- 1), the 63,510 spectators – including 1,600 visitors ultimately authorized to be present – were never treated to a shock worthy of the past of these two heavyweights of European football.
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2024-04-19 00:51:26
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