Exited in the third preliminary round of the Champions League, Olympique de Marseille will play its Europa League play-off against a relegated player from the C1 group stage, next February. Raymond Domenech was ironic on the subject.
The blow was hard to take for the supporters of Olympique de Marseille. While they hoped to see their team, third in the last Ligue 1 season, obtain its ticket for the Champions League, they fell from a height when OM were eliminated by Panathinaikos, in the third preliminary round of C1. Returned to the Europa League, the Marseille club long believed they could finish at the top of their group, but their defeat at Brighton on the sixth day (1-0) deprived them of first place, forcing them to play a play-off against a club dropped out of the Champions League. Some people took the opportunity to be a little mischievous.
Accustomed to handling irony, Raymond Domenech made a spicy outing Thursday evening, when discussing the rest of OM’s European campaign. On the set of the channel The Team, the consultant first spoke of this first place missed by Gennaro Gattuso’s men. “ I would say that it is not a failure because with Marseille, we expect so many disasters each time in the European Cup, that in the end they qualified. And what’s more, they are going to do something extraordinary, they are going to repeat the Champions League because they are going to play against someone who is coming down from the Champions League. So it’s fabulous.“
Milan or Braga?
For the former coach of the Blues, Olympique de Marseille will therefore taste the Champions League again in mid-February 2024, just to stay alive in the Europa League. And Raymond Domenech continues with a knowing smile. “ This is not bad faith, it is factual. They got through last year. It’s no longer a surprise. Each time we wait for something, but we know very well how it ends each time. And it ends the same way. And there they will meet Milan perhaps, or Braga, and they will repeat the Champions League.“
