This must be the famous Marseille exaggeration but the huge banner blocking a whole bend at the entrance of the players was almost liable to false advertising.
“Europe can tremble, here are the Marseillais again”, could we read.
Unless it's cold when the temperatures drop, OM don't really have the profile of the one who will make Europe shiver in the Champions League.
Rather interesting for its solidity a week earlier in London before being outnumbered against Tottenham, the Marseille building encountered more difficulty against the Germans who left them the ball.
Unable to put rhythm and speed against the low block of Eintracht Frankfurt, the Marseillais wasted their scarce ammunition.
We can already write it without risking ridicule, Frankfurt will not lift the trophy on June 10.
But its obvious shortcomings were not prohibitive against an overly tense OM who got into trouble on their own at the end of the first period.
A first error from Bailly which returns the ball to the opponent followed by an intervention from Rongier which turns into a decisive pass for Lindström (0-1, 43rd).
Finally accelerating after the break, OM push but badly.
Frankfurt is rounding its back and managing its little savings to the end.
OM concede their 16th defeat in their last 17 Champions League games and have not scored in 7 of their last 8 outings in the competition.
“We are not far from the Champions League level, but you have to score goals to exist in C1”,
Nazi salutes from the stands
Alas, there was not only one match this Tuesday in Marseille.
First in town and then in the stands, fear, provocations and tension multiplied.
In the afternoon first, Place de la Joliette where the police prevented a confrontation between "supporters" of the two clubs.
Firecrackers, smoke bombs and fireworks were lit on the René-Dufaure-de-Montmirail forecourt, also squared by the CRS.
Two hours before kick-off, the first Eintracht Frankfurt fans had entered the visitor parking lot of the Jean-Bouin stand where smoke bombs are exchanged with the Marseille North bend.
Nazi salutes can be seen in the lower part of the area held by fans from across the Rhine.
At the break, the tension remained high and pieces of siege torn off by the Germans were thrown at the Marseillais, forcing the CRS to still use tear gas to calm the ambient fury.
Even if the sporting meeting was not of a high level, it is nevertheless preferred a hundred times to its dirty images of tense stands which should not leave UEFA unmoved for long.
