After facing Real Madrid, Liverpool or Atalanta in the Champions League, OM could well find themselves facing clubs from Moldova, Finland, Kazazakhstan, Lithuania or Macedonia. The team led by Habib Beye completely foundered in the race for qualification in the Champions League. Three defeats and the draw conceded Sunday evening against OGC Nice at the Stade Vélodrome (1-1) put the Phocéens four points off the podium, with OL and Losc tied for 3rd place.
Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg still has three matches (to win) against FC Nantes, Le Havre and Stade Rennais in order to snatch an improbable ticket for the C1, knowing that the Rouge et Noir are 5th with a three-point lead for the moment. OM finished in a very disappointing 6th place and would qualify for the Conference League by finishing in this position in three weeks. This would be quite catastrophic financially, since the Europa League and the Conference League provide much less income than the premier competition.
In the Conference, all teams are already forced to go through the play-offs in order to play a league phase of six matches (instead of eight). During the draw for the first phase, participants are divided into six hats and each club inherits a team from each pot. Which could provide a “little” shock for the Marseillais if they finish sixth in Ligue 1.
Bournemouth or Roma for OM?
Representatives of the major championships will be there. For the moment, the 7th in the Premier League is Bournemouth, the 6th in Serie A is AS Roma, the 6th in Liga is Getafe and the 7th in the Bundesliga is Frankfurt. We could then find teams accustomed to European games such as Ajax, FC Copenhagen, Qarabag, FC Basel or Ludogorets, which are correctly classified by UEFA.
Last year, RC Strasbourg avoided top seeds Fiorentina and Shakhtar (falling to Slovan Bratislava), but fell to Crystal Palace, the huge piece of hat 2 (for a 2-1 victory at the Meinau). The Alsatian club did not travel very far since Liam Rosenior’s team played on the grounds of Häcken and Aberdeen, in Sweden and Scotland (for 2-1 and 1-0 successes).
