Olympique’s new project, led by Spanish coach Marcelino, officially began with a 1-0 loss to Panathinaikos in the first leg of the Champions League third qualifying round. Next week is the return, where the last Wonder Boy team plays the season.
Olympique de Marseille’s best player last season was Alexis Sánchez. But on June 30, the player’s relationship with the institution ended and today the Tocopillano is a free agent. There is still no definition regarding the future of the Chilean team, beyond the fact that its name appears on the radar of several castings. Meanwhile, the French club have officially started their 2023-2024 campaign with a faux pas.
This Wednesday, as visitors, they lost 1-0 to Panathinaikos of Greece in the first leg of the European Champions League third qualifying round. In this way, OM are forced to beat the series playing at home, if they want to aspire to access the group stage.
At the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium in Athens, Spaniard Marcelino García Toral made his points debut as the new coach of the Olympique, replacing Croatian Igor Tudor, who led the team last season. Already at the first meeting, movements were observed. The first was that Marseille fielded four in the background, unlike the three Tudor had. On the left wing was Brazilian Renan Lodi, formerly of Atlético de Madrid, one of the new faces. In attack, the starting center-forward was the Gabonese Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
In the second half, the match became tense for Marseille due to the expulsion of midfielder Geoffrey Kondogbia in the 65th minute. The French had to play with one less in the last part of the match, during which Panathinaikos found the winning goal. At the 83′ minute, Bernard converts the final 1-0 for the greens. The statistics do not show a good record in the match for OM: only one shot on goal and 33% possession of the ball.
The return will be next Tuesday, August 15, at the Stade Vélodrome, at 3:00 p.m. in Chile. Marcelino’s team will have to win by two goals to reach the knockout round, the last before the group stage, where the last 32 representatives will participate. If Marseille qualify, they will face the winner of the key between Sporting Braga of Portugal and Backa Topola of Serbia in the playoffs. For the moment, the two French clubs which will compete in the Champions League are PSG and Lens.
Ligue 1 kicks off this weekend and Alexis Sánchez’s latest side make their home debut on Saturday against Reims.
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Source: Latercera
I’m Scott Moore, a professional writer and journalist based in the US. I’ve been writing for various publications for over 8 years now, and have been working as an author at athletistic for the past five years. My work has been featured by some of the leading sports websites and magazines across Europe.
