Reduced to 10 per hour of play, OM players fell on Wednesday evening to Panathinaikos (1-0), in the third round of Champions League qualification. Return on August 15 to Marseille.
When the Brazilian Bernard opened the scoring, OM could fear the worst on the lawn of Panathinaikos. Led 1-0 in the 83rd minute on a goal scored closely by the former Shakhtar Donetsk and Everton, and reduced to 10 per hour of play, Marcelino’s formation seemed solid on its back bases. We were wrong.
It was when we said to ourselves that this OM, clearly still in the running-in period, was at least holding its own in its surface by repelling the Greek assaults that the evil happened. The nice collective movement concluded by Bernard was only logical, finally.
OM find themselves at 10 against Pana https://t.co/nhBJyBs0vJ
— Sports.fr (@sports_fr) August 9, 2023
OM suffered most of the time on Wednesday evening, with four yellow cards after 31 minutes, the first of which was sent to Kondogbia after… 35 seconds. The left-handed midfielder, the most prominent of his team before his exit, saw red for a second warning in the 63rd minute (0-0).
Marcelino’s Marseillais also suffered at the start of the second half against a strong moment from Pana. Captain Gigot played the saviors (53rd) before seeing the attempts of Mancini (57th) and Vilhena (59th) pass over the cages of Lopez.
The pressure is already enormous
Dangerous on a header from a fairly transparent Aubameyang (22nd), and two strikes signed Ounahi (45th) and Clauss (50th), OM did not have enough assets to hope for better.
If they avoided cracking after the opener, the 1-0 defeat forced the Olympians to go up a notch in six days in Marseille. Otherwise, goodbye to the Champions League.
