Olympique de Marseille – RC Lens: Les Sang et Or’s distant Champions League hopes fall apart (2-1)

A late defensive error from RC Lens allowed Olympique de Marseille to claim all three points in a game that felt far more open than its eventual scoreline. It was a sign of how off the pace last season’s second and third-placed teams have been, that as they were scrapping at the lower ends of European qualification the title in France was being decided. 

Tactical analysis and match report by Nick Hartland.

Olympique de Marseille have no one else to blame but themselves for their disappointing season; the historic side has taken historically bad steps. Jean-Louis Gasset is the fourth manager to take charge in this campaign, and while some signs have been promising under him, the damage had largely already been done. Seventh place and a European semi-final are hardly disastrous, but it also suggests that there could have been so much more to come if the club had been able to control the chaos. 

RC Lens came into this match assured that Marseille could not displace them from sixth place, a position good enough for European qualification, but the aim was the same as last season; a spot in next year’s Champions League. It was perhaps a more distant hope than aim, but a victory over Marseille would have kept them within the conversation. Lens like Marseille have been far from disastrous, but nor have they been great, and there is still the feeling that a summer of departures has never truly been addressed by their incomings. 

Gasset would match Lens’s formation with a 3-4-3 shape. Pau López in goal behind Leonardo Balerdi, Samuel Gigot, and Michael Amir . . .