Beaten by Benfica (2-1) Thursday evening during the quarter-final first leg of the Europa League, OM can still dream of the last four. In the After Foot show on RMC, Daniel Riolo regretted the low level of the Marseille players and launched some ideas to overthrow the Portuguese club in the return match.
Long in the tough and very pushed around by Benfica, OM ended up limiting the damage in Lisbon this Thursday during the quarter-final first leg of Europa League. Despite the defeat (2-1) conceded in the Portuguese capital, the hope of qualifying for the last four remains thanks to Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal.
“OM is terribly poor apart from Aubameyang who is a kind of guy who hides a bit of the mediocrity around him,” analyzed Daniel Riolo in the showAfter Foot on RMC. Before clarifying following this fifth consecutive defeat for the team coached by Jean-Louis Gasset: “At the beginning you really have the feeling that Benfica is really on top technically and that if things get going, they can beat them. “
>> Relive the Benfica-OM match (2-1)
“You wasted time”
Due to the numerous injuries and the poor form of certain attackers, Jean-Louis Gasset attempted moves by repositioning players for this European duel against the Lisbon club. In vain. And not without raising questions, particularly around the tenure of the disappointing Faris Moumbagna alongside Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.
“It’s still tough to say to ourselves that we’re going to try… I’m coming away from the recurring joke around Faris Moumbagna, it’s still tough to say to ourselves about this match with the little experience and the performances he has shown since he arrived. Faris Moumbagna, you go to Benfica and you start him, so that forces you to… We can’t say that it greatly disturbs Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and it happens to him often not to be the new one. I find it a bit of a strange choice that Gasset immediately corrects during the break, it’s always good to rectify and realize that you have made a mistake, we can also say that You wasted time.”
Riolo calls on Gasset to keep things “simple”
Despite the defeat, the goal scored by its Gabonese star allows OM to believe in qualifying for the semi-final. But to hope to overthrow Benfica in the return match next Thursday at the Vélodrome, Marseille must return to basics according to the After editorialist.
“Since now the debates revolve around the coaches and everyone is racking their brains like never before with tactics… At one point you do an analysis of your squad and if you need to do simple things because you don’t you don’t have any real strength, because you feel that you have problems somewhere, at some point just keep things simple.”
And Riolo continued: “They are at five defeats in a row at OM, because this Thursday evening they lost casually. They are on a series of defeats, it is not going well and they cannot find the right one. animation… Listen old man, you put Aubameyang alone in front and you make a reinforced midfield with five… Do something a little simpler where you secure because your guys aren’t strong enough in the middle anyway. Your guys aren’t not strong enough to develop something, we cannot develop a game. OM does not develop a game.”
>> The majority of Europa League matches are on RMC Sport
“The Marseillais can only win this match in the fight”
Simplicity, certainly, and also intensity. When Marseille were better in this quarter-final first leg, it coincided with Benfica’s physical sluggishness. For Daniel Riolo, the French club has a real chance of winning on the return leg thanks to this physical domination. According to him, it is even the only way to continue the European adventure.
“In the first half I thought they could be torn apart 3-0 because Benfica was playing without forcing. When it was 2-0 after Di Maria’s goal, it was such a treat on the surface that I told myself that it could end very, very badly”, then slipped the editorialist on the air of RMC. “And then Benfica completely dropped in intensity and that also made them lose control from a technical point of view. That’s when OM started to exist again. Did they in a return match can set them on fire? How can they set them on fire? It can only be a physical fire, a kind of steamroller that they can set.”
“The Marseillais can only win this match in the fight, it is not technically that they will win it. There is no match this weekend, they will have to work and it will be in pushing physically and putting pressure and big, big intensity. That’s the only way OM can turn the double confrontation around.”