Second in its Europa League group, Olympique de Marseille will face a team transferred from the Champions League in the play-off. Enough to remind the Phocaeans of the bad memory of last summer…
Third in Ligue 1 behind PSG and Lens, Olympique de Marseille hoped to play a second consecutive Champions League campaign. But this dream quickly disappeared this summer, with the elimination in the 3rd preliminary round against Panathinaikos.
Second in their Europa League group, OM will find a little flavor of the Champions League next February with an upcoming play-off against a team dropped from the C1. And this is not necessarily a good omen, when we look back at the recent history of the Phocaeans in this competition.
OM have clearly not been comfortable in the Champions League in recent seasons, with their fourth place in the groups in 2022-2023, and therefore this elimination against Panathinaikos, who are far from being a European leader. The proof, the Greek club, exited in the Champions League play-off immediately by Braga, also played in the group stage of the Europa League, for a rather terrible record: only one victory in six matches, and a last place behind Villarreal, Rennes and Maccabi Haifa.
To rewrite history, OM could also afford this barrage against Braga which did not take place last summer. The Portuguese are one of the seven potential opponents of OM, Rennes and Toulouse, with AC Milan, Benfica, Feyenoord, Galatasaray, Shakhtar Donetsk and Young Boys.
