Villarreal nearly pulled off a surprising comeback on Thursday evening. Heading into the second leg of their UEFA Europa League tie towards Olympique de Marseille, they confronted the mammoth activity of overturning a four-goal deficit.
Pre-match, Marseille supervisor Jean-Louis Gasset stated that Villarreal needed to play a “excellent” match and had “no margin for error”, while his facet must have a “catastrophic” match to be able to cede their 4-0 benefit. That assertion was seemingly meant as a warning, but it surely was nearly a blueprint for his facet, who have been out-run and out-fought for nearly your complete 90 minutes on the Estadi de la Ceràmica.
PLAYER RATINGS | Villarreal 3-1 Marseille: Jean-Louis Gasset’s males given a scare by Villarreal however safe qualification.
🇪🇸 Pau Lopez, 7
🇲🇦 Azzedine Ounahi, 3
🇬🇦 Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, 5https://t.co/nNkndlXFdM— Get French Soccer Information (@GFFN) March 14, 2024
Villarreal had 25 pictures to Marseille’s seven. Les Phocéens have been grateful for the La Liga facet’s profligacy, in addition to a string of essential saves from Pau Lopez. Yerson Mosquera scored Villarreal’s third on the evening within the eighty fifth minute to arrange a tense end, nonetheless, with Marcelino’s facet pushing for an equaliser, Jonathan Clauss killed the match within the dying seconds, seeing OM progress 5-3 on mixture. Marcelino, who started the season as Marseille supervisor, believes that the ultimate scoreline was “unfair”.
After a bitter confrontation, Marcelino and Marseille are set for a fiery reunion.
🖋️ @LukeEntwistle https://t.co/w3Ut6y1rUD
— Get French Soccer Information (@GFFN) March 7, 2024
“We noticed an amazing present, a extremely nice present, with what was from my standpoint, on the steadiness of the 2 matches, unfair. We had a really unhealthy day in Marseille, however I don’t know in the event that they even had 4 possibilities to attain within the first leg and we had 18 tonight. The work was extraordinary and we’re unhappy. We had the probabilities. We thought we may qualify and the gamers right now confirmed that was doable. It’s a disgrace as a result of we deserved to qualify greater than Marseille,” stated the Spaniard in his post-match press conference.
The winners of the 2020/21 Europa League marketing campaign are, nonetheless, out and Marseille proceed at their expense. Les Phocéens will uncover their quarter-final opponent on Friday.
GFFN | Luke Entwistle