Olympique de Marseille has not gone far from correctional facilities. Despite its festival in the first leg at the Stade-Vélodrome against Villarreal (4-0), the Marseille club found a way to tremble in Spain, Thursday March 14, in the round of 16 second leg of the Europa League. Beaten 3-1, the Marseillais nevertheless reached the quarter-finals of the competition.
Lille, involved in the Europa Conference League, had the good idea to calmly manage its easy success in the first leg in Austria (3-0) to eliminate Sturm Graz without trembling, despite a small draw (1-1) at home, Thursday evening. LOSC reached the quarter-finals of a European competition for the first time in its history.
The seventh is therefore, finally, the right one. After six eliminations in the round of 16 of European competitions – five in the UUEFA Cup or the Europa League, one in the Champions League – Lille managed to reach the quarter-finals, in this case within the third continental level with the Europa Conference League. After its demonstration in the south-east of Austria (3-0), the northern club assured what seemed inevitable given the difference in levels between the two clubs, at the end of a meeting where it essentially managed his advance.
The word management seems the most appropriate to describe this match: coach Paulo Fonseca took advantage of the clear advantage acquired in the first leg to line up several players accustomed to the substitutes’ bench from the outset, such as Vito Mannone in goal, Ayyoub Bouaddi in midfield, Rémy Cabella on the left wing and Yusuf Yazici up front.
The Portuguese didn’t really have a choice as he still does not benefit from the contribution of his three winter recruits Andrej Ilic, Tiago Morais and Rafael Fernandes, all injured.
In this configuration, his players had difficulty getting into their match, jostled by the second in the Austrian championship. After a quarter of an hour, the storm passed, and the first period was played without much rhythm until the goal of Lille’s Tiago Santos (43rd), who opened the scoring in the middle of a forest of players, well served by Haraldsson (1-0).
But LOSC lost its advantage a few minutes later, when Mika Biereth extended a nice diving header from his partner Gregory Wüthrich to equalize after a corner (1-1, 45 1).
Very wary before the match, Paulo Fonseca then brought on his captain Benjamin André as well as Angel Gomes and Jonathan David at half-time. But apart from an attempt by Yazici diverted by Jaros, the approximately 17,000 supporters at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy saw nothing to thrill about.
No matter, Lille has crossed a historic frontier on its scale. He could even go further in this competition where only Aston Villa, who knocked out Ajax Amsterdam at the same time, appear stronger.
It’s a fact: after five victories in a row to start his mandate, coach Jean-Louis Gasset experienced his first defeat at the head of Olympique Marseille, Thursday evening at Villarreal (3-1). But the consolation is that this setback has no consequences, thanks to the festival of the first leg which offered a comfortable cushion of four goals to the Marseillais.
The deliverance arrived at the end of added time, when Jonathan Clauss finished off a superb piece of work from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (3-1, 90 4). OM avoided the indignity of a “comeback”, which has only happened once in the history of European football after a 4-0 first leg: it was Paris SG who had suffered it, against Barcelona (6-1).
OM, therefore, had a narrow escape, although at first, we might have thought that the Spaniards themselves did not really believe in it. The stadium was half empty, goalkeeper Pepe Reina had withdrawn at the last minute, the conditions did not seem to be right.
But OM very quickly gave the Yellows some reason for hope. Jean-Louis Gasset had chosen a reasonable turnover, as well as a reinforced defense, with five elements. But his players seemed to take the problem the other way around with a first period far from the standards of commitment required and promised, as well as a multitude of bad choices on the rare occasions when they had the ball at their feet in a good position.
Marcelino’s men – who started the season on the Marseille bench before being disembarked after seven matches – have gradually settled into the opposing camp. It was the Frenchman Etienne Capoue who first found the opening, with a header, after a very good collective action from the Spaniards (1-0, 32nd). At the break, Amine Harit and Aubameyang came on to pose a more convincing danger and the duo was immediately in action. But on a serve from the Moroccan, Aubameyang missed the opportunity in the 48th minute which could undoubtedly have definitively ended the suspense.
Instead, Villarreal attacked again and Sorloth doubled the lead in the 55th minute after another classy action from Guedes and an endless check of his position at the VAR (2-0). At that moment, fear set in in the Marseille camp. Leonardo Balerdi may have put his fingers to his temples to encourage his teammates to keep a cool head, but every ball was painful, in the atmosphere of a wild arena.
With a reflex save, Pau Lopez avoided the 3-0 on a header from Gerard Moreno (72nd) but he could do nothing on that of Yerson Mosquera, who made the unimaginable very plausible in the 85th minute ( 3-0).
Aubameyang and Clauss ended up saving OM, but this setback in Spain could leave some traces. He reveals that the fragility of OM did not suddenly disappear in a month and Rennes, Sunday in L1, could remember this.
“I went through all the states and at 3-0, like many people, I thought the worst,” admitted Jean-Louis Gasset. We waited until the end to close the debates. This means that OM is still recovering, in terms of technical mastery and control of the event. »
“I’m proud of my players. We saw a very good show and overall, the result does not seem fair to me in both matches,” said Villarreal coach Marcelino.
Marseille can watch the draw for the quarter-finals of the Europa League on Friday. His European dream survived, but only just.
Liverpool and AC Milan, leaders of the competition, easily ensured their qualification for the quarter-finals of the Europa League on Thursday, also joined by Bayer Leverkusen who nevertheless came close to a huge disappointment against Qarabag.
The Germans were led, at home, 2-0 by their modest Azerbaijani opponent, who thought they would inflict their first defeat of the season on Bayer and also eliminate them since the two teams had parted back to back at the first leg (2-2), at the end of a match where the German club had already had to come back two goals.
The scenario was repeated in Germany. After a goal from Fripomp in the 72nd minute, it was a double from Patrik Schick in added time (90 3 and 90 7) which allowed the leader of the Bundesliga, promised to the title with ten points ahead of Bayern Munich, to win to go on to a 37th match without defeat (3-2).
It was much quieter for Liverpool, who again crushed Sparta Prague 6-1, after the correction already inflicted in the first leg (5-1), and for AC Milan who confirmed their superiority over Slavia (4 -2 in the first leg), winning 3-1 in Prague. The only downside for the Milanese: the exit of French international goalkeeper Mike Maignan, injured in a knee, during a clash with a player from the Czech club.
Held in check at home (2-2), Benfica for its part managed to validate its presence in the quarters, by winning 1-0 against Glasgow Rangers. West Ham had a much easier time beating Freiburg 5-0, thus erasing their initial defeat (1-0) in Germany.