Both feet on the Vélodrome, but head in Lens or Bergamo? While their chances of European qualification via the Championship are still slim, OM host Lens this Sunday (9pm), four days before they welcome Atalanta Bergamo in the Europa League semi-final first leg.
But in Marseille, everyone assures hand on heart that every game in every competition will be played to the full, starting with the one against Sang et Or. “We don’t think like that. Otherwise, we have it all wrong,” captain Samuel Gigot said on Friday. “The most important game is Sunday against Lens. Those are the three points that matter to us. Europe is Thursday,” he added.
Composition will judge ambition
“Not at all,” answered Jean-Louis Gasset already on Wednesday when asked if OM could give up the championship and fully focus on the upcoming semi-final against Atalanta. His players then just conceded a draw against Nice (2-2), which was meritorious at 10 against 11 for 45 minutes, but not very useful considering European qualification.
“I can see that Lens is on five points and that we are getting them. We will fight until the end. I don’t know where we will finish, but we will not give up and on Sunday the good team, the least tired, will play,” he continued.
The squad assembled by the Marseille coach on Sunday will in any case be a good indicator of Marseille’s ambitions, while some managers like Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Leonardo Balerdi or Jordan Veretout play a lot and seem to be essential, whether in L1 or C3.
European places still in the crosshairs
In the OM championship, they took only two points in the last five games and could retire. But Lens is the last opponent at the top of the table for Marseillais, who will eventually face Reims, Lorient and Le Havre. “Everything is still playable, of course. There are only four games left and we have to win from Sunday,” assessed Gigot, who remembered that last year Lens and Marseille were fighting for second place, not sixth.
“We are where we deserve to be. But we must fight while there is hope and try to hold on to this 6 until the endE place, even 5thE “, declared the captain of Marseille, who knows that the 7E The position could also offer a European folding seat in the Europa Conference League if Paris Saint-Germain win the Coupe de France.
“The goal remains to finish at the European Championship and play in the final of the Europa League,” Gasset reiterated on Friday. I didn’t get the impression that against Nice the players had an edge in the European Cup. I told you that we will play the championship hard until the last minute and we will play hard! “. There is no time for calculations in OM now.