A bitter defeat. Beaten by Sporting this Wednesday in the Champions League (1-2), Olympique de Marseille missed a good opportunity to take three points which seemed to be reaching out to them after a good start to the match and the magnificent opening score from Igor Paixão.
But the face of the match completely changed when Emerson Palmieri was sent off just before the break. Sent back to the locker room for two yellow cards, the first for a hand, the second for simulation, the Italian full-back left his partners at 10 for the entirety of the second period. Which was fatal for them, since after being caught twenty minutes from time, the Olympians collapsed in the 86th minute.
“The first yellow Emerson takes is scandalous”
A few moments after the end of the match, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang did not let up: according to the Gabonese striker, his teammate should never have been excluded. “This evening the referees were not up to standard at all,” he said at the microphone of Canal +. “There is nothing to say, there was nothing for us. The first yellow Emerson takes is scandalous, he can’t do anything with his hand…”
For the Marseille scorer, the performance of Rade Obrenovic, the Slovenian official in charge of the game, weighed in the final result. “When we have a match with such high stakes in the Champions League, having referees like that is scandalous. It penalizes us because we were having a good match and, behind it, it changes the whole aspect,” criticized the manager of the Marseille attack, on the same line as his coach.
Indeed, a little later in the evening, Roberto De Zerbi also went on the microphone of the encrypted channel to say all the good things he thought of Mr. Obrenovic’s match. “In my opinion we paid for refereeing errors. I didn’t like the way the match was refereed,” said the Italian technician.
“He was not ready for a match of this level”
“I don’t think the referee was good enough for a match like this. I don’t want to talk about the specific episodes but, in general, he was not ready to referee a match of this level. »
Now ranked 18th out of 36 with a victory in three matches, OM, who hope to finish among the first 24 in the regular phase standings to join the play-offs next February, therefore saw their series of five consecutive victories end in Lisbon. But De Zerbi only seemed to remember the positives in the post-match press conference.
“In the first half, there was only one team on the field, and it was OM,” he said. “Against a team that is used to playing in the Champions League. Outside. With ten players, that changes everything. Honestly the first yellow card (from Emerson) was severe, and I frankly think that the refereeing was not up to the level of the match. And upon arrival, the Sporting players did not have many opportunities to score. » Fortunately for RDZ and for Marseille, Mr. Obrenovic should not be on the whistle on November 5, against Atalanta…
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