The right time to break the streak? By facing a reduced Paris-Saint-Germain on Sunday, September 13 at 9 p.m., between players positive for Covid-19 and lack of pace since the final of the Champions League, Olympique de Marseille can consider winning against its rival for the first times in 20 games.
The Marseillais, second in the championship last season, will almost have the costume of favorites by treading the lawn of a Parc des Princes filled with 5,000 spectators. The Covid-19 passed in the Parisian locker room after the Champions League and infected many players, and not the least: Neymar, Di Maria and Paredes then Maquinhos, Icardi, Navas and finally Mbappé caught the virus. Either six of the holders of the Champions League final.
Without them, the very overhauled PSG team lost 1-0 against the promoted Lensois on Thursday, for their first match of the 2020-2021 Ligue 1 season. Even if some player returns are expected, the effects of the lack rhythm are likely to be felt on the ground.
” We watched the game against Lens. Maybe now is the right time to give our supporters a little joy ”, Said Marseille coach André Villas-Boas at a press conference. His own players are well aware of the effect of the virus, many having contracted it, which prompted the postponement of the first game of the championship against Saint-Etienne on August 21.
” The recovery was complicated, I was a little short of breath. It will take me a little while to be 100% physically “, Explained the Marseille playmaker Dimitri Payet. The Reunionese did however ” not had too many symptoms Of the disease, just like seven of its partners, including Mandanda, Rongier or Alvaro.
Real false start from Villas-Boas
The outbreak of the virus was only the last of the episodes that shook OM in the offseason. The period is never calm for the Marseille club, but with the return to the Champions League, for the first time in seven years, coach André Villas-Boas could have hoped for a little more serenity.
The Portuguese technician, who arrived at the start of last season, even almost left the club. He was announced leaving in the wake of the departure of his friend Andoni Zubizarreta, sports director of OM since 2016. The latter was decisive in convincing the former Chelsea coach to come, but he could no longer weigh among executives and was released from his contract one year in advance.
The testimonies of support from his players, however, retained Villas-Boas, who feels good in Marseille and that the Vélodrome adores. It must be said that he has managed to reinvigorate a workforce at the end of its rope after the failed third season of Rudi Garcia. All without Florian Thauvin, injured ankle. The striker showed from the first league game how much his presence can change the face of a match, with one goal and two assists in the 3-2 success on the Brest lawn.
André Villas-Boas was also waiting for new players to strengthen his workforce before the Champions League. He hasn’t achieved much, other than the arrival on loan of young Argentina center-back Leonardo Balerdi from Dortmund and the exercise of the option to buy Spanish defender Alvaro Gonzalez.
He is still hoping for the arrival of a striker to support Argentinian Dario Benedetto but his main satisfaction has above all been to note that no major player in his squad has left in the meantime.
OM are under close control of European financial fair play: in June, UEFA sentenced the club to a fine of 3 million euros and the withdrawal of 15% of the sums it will receive for its participation in competitions Europeans for the next two seasons.
Redemption attempt
The difficult financial situation has not escaped the notice of potential investors, who have revolved around OM throughout the summer. Tunisian businessman Mohamed Ajroudi has set his sights on the club along with the former president of the Toulon rugby club Mourad Boudjellal.
The affair has sometimes turned into a burlesque, with Mourad Boudjellal withdrawing to protest against the communication of the candidate buyer before returning with “the total confidence” of the investor.
If the American owner of OM, Franck McCourt, has repeatedly stated that he is not a seller and that the shattering declarations of the Ajroudi-Boudjellal tandem have calmed down a little in recent weeks, Mr. Boudjellal estimated in an interview with the regional daily Provence, at the end of August, that the redemption “Will be done by the end of the year”.
In their crazy summer, the Marseillais will at least have had the satisfaction of seeing PSG fail in the Champions League final. The defeat against Bayern was celebrated with pomp on the Canebière, Dimitri Payet even allowing himself a roommate Tweet to remind that OM remained the only French club to have a European star above their coat of arms.
” It made me laugh, nothing more. Before we complained about players who made the tongue-in-cheek, now when we spoof it is that we are looking for the buzz “Assured the French international. However, he wants to be realistic: “ The beast is injured but PSG will not play as they played against Lens. Honestly, I don’t think this ignition delay is going to keep them from finishing the season ahead. “
It remains to assume on the ground and take advantage of this difficult start in Paris.
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