The San Siro last night was packed with people, hopes, and cliches. 62,632 fans watched in the famous Italian stadium, home to rivals AC Milan and Inter Milan. On the pitch, the middling, aging home team sought to mount a last charge two years after their last Champions League (and domestic) title, and in the midst of an uninspired season that sees them 6 points off the Europa League and 8 off the Champions League with 11 matches to play (and AC Milan leading the table). The middling, stuck-in-limbo visitors also pinned their hopes for seasonal salvation on last night's match, guarding a 1-0 lead from the home match that marked their only highlight of the calendar year, what with them as well crashing to 7 points off the Europa League spot and 8 off the Champions League (though they have cups that could qualify them for Europa League as well). As for the cliches? "The night of last chances," "the last-chance saloon", "two rats in a corner", all possible and/or used descriptions of the match. Sometimes football exists as an excuse to pun and coin pithy statements about life and drama and etc.
All these hopes and people and cliches filled and grew over 90+ tense minutes, before deflating on one seemingly inconsequential, desperate attempt. A mundane situation, a lucky bounce, and a strong finish, and it was all over. Football.
For those first 90 minutes, the game played out to a fairly predictable script. Inter played a little bit more aggressively and pressed the pace, being down a goal from the first leg of the cup tie. Marseille, an underdog anyway, managed to hold the ball for stretches and threatened occasionally; an OM goal would more or less clinch the match, as Inter would have to win 3-1 in that case. The first half was scoreless, and as the pressure and desperation built on the Inter side, they attempted to redirect that pressure onto OM. As the game passed the 60-minute mark, the ball stayed more and more on OM's half of the field, and if Inter's attacks betrayed their desperation and lacked precision as a result, they still accumulated. It was a matter of time, it seemed, before OM would break.
(Here's a shorter link if this video doesn't work)
And break they did. On a corner, OM failed to clear or play an offsides trap appropriately - Jeremy Morel lingered too long after covering the near post - and Diego Milito ended up scavenging a boxed-around ball right in front of the net. 1-0 Inter, 1-1 on the aggregate, and all was to play for with 15 minutes left of regulation time.
A 1-1 score in a cup tie offers a lot of possibilities. Last week, Lyon failed to break down Nicosia, went through to extra time, and after 120 minutes, lost a penalty shootout. Last night, Bayern Munich tied the aggregate against Basel at 1-1 10 minutes into the match, and then proceeded to score 6 more goals from just before halftime to the rest of the game. With 15 minutes left, it looked more likely like OM-Inter would follow the Lyon blueprint.
The game opened up though. Whereas in the build-up to the goal, it was all Inter pressure on OM, with a Chinese-water torture intensity as happens often, afterwards both sides took opportunities and missed scoring and taking the aggregate lead by narrow margins. The clock entered the 3 minutes of extra time, and it looked sure that the two teams would play another 30 minutes.
Except Steve Mandanda, who had made a series of great saves for OM throughout the night, solidifying his reputation as one of the top keepers in France, sent a long ball off a free kick in his end. One of those typical balls towards the opposition's penalty area that usually gets cleared easily, or boxed around a bit, or controlled and then lost, or doesn't even land on the pitch. Nothing to get excited about, if not for the context.
And then the ball hit its target more or less, glancing off the back of Brandao, a substitute striker who had come on two minutes earlier and had been added back to Marseille's team from Brazil only in the winter break. Brandao, a strong fellow, had been backing up towards the Inter goal to maintain position and get the ball; he turned as the ball neared, hit him on the back, and fell perfectly to his left foot. He had a half-step on the defender, had his countryman Julio Cesar guessing the wrong way, and blasted a straight shot past the keeper and into the net. 1-1. Match.
Well, there was some tomfoolery in the aftermath. Inter pressed, got a breakaway, and thinking only of the moment, Mandanda went and tackled Giuseppe Pazzini, leading to a yellow card and a penalty. The penalty wasn't a big deal - Pazzini scored, but the match ended there, with OM winning 2-2 with the away goals tiebreaker (they scored one, Inter didn't). Mandanda, however, already had a yellow card earlier in the game, meaning he drew a red as well and as such a one-game suspension from the next round of the Champions League, where Marseille will have two games in the quarterfinal.
(Mandanda's quote regarding this, as per Ligue1.com: "It's hard...I'm above all disappointed with my first yellow. The assistant referee told me to go and get the ball, I did, and the ref gave me a yellow. APOEL Nicosia would be a good draw for us." - In other words, sucks I got a card, I hope we draw the team from the tiny country that everybody wants to play. Cliches didn't completely pop after the Brandao goal.)
All the same, Marseille's run in the Champions League epitomizes much of the joy in sports, and also the folly in trying to read too much into it. Marseille made the knockout round due to an improbable turn of events - they came back from 2-0 down away to Borussia Dortmund to win that match 2-3 with two goals in the final five minutes, allowing them to just over leap Olympiacos. In the first leg at home against Inter, Andre Ayew scored the only goal and winner on a corner on just about the last situation of the match, a corner. And now this match. OM continues to struggle in Ligue1, and this will have to provide a huge spark for them to catch Lille or anybody else for the 3rd or 4th place spots. Their season will still probably be considered a frustrating slog, a disappointment for a dominant team such as OM.
At the same time, they haven't made the Champions League quarterfinals since they won the whole thing in 1993. Their advance helps Ligue 1's UEFA coefficient for future European qualifications. And while they don't want to draw Barcelona or Real Madrid, just like everybody else, and Bayern Munich is probably a cut above them, nobody else among the quarterfinalists - Apoel, AC Milan, Chelsea or Napoli, Benfica, CSKA Moscow if they shock Real - is beyond Marseille's grasp.
Considering Marseille's luck, it wouldn't be surprising to see them get a winnable fixture next round, and no more surprising to see them actually win it. The last chance paid off, and Marseille lives to fight out of another corner. Football means little more than that.
All these hopes and people and cliches filled and grew over 90+ tense minutes, before deflating on one seemingly inconsequential, desperate attempt. A mundane situation, a lucky bounce, and a strong finish, and it was all over. Football.
For those first 90 minutes, the game played out to a fairly predictable script. Inter played a little bit more aggressively and pressed the pace, being down a goal from the first leg of the cup tie. Marseille, an underdog anyway, managed to hold the ball for stretches and threatened occasionally; an OM goal would more or less clinch the match, as Inter would have to win 3-1 in that case. The first half was scoreless, and as the pressure and desperation built on the Inter side, they attempted to redirect that pressure onto OM. As the game passed the 60-minute mark, the ball stayed more and more on OM's half of the field, and if Inter's attacks betrayed their desperation and lacked precision as a result, they still accumulated. It was a matter of time, it seemed, before OM would break.
(Here's a shorter link if this video doesn't work)
And break they did. On a corner, OM failed to clear or play an offsides trap appropriately - Jeremy Morel lingered too long after covering the near post - and Diego Milito ended up scavenging a boxed-around ball right in front of the net. 1-0 Inter, 1-1 on the aggregate, and all was to play for with 15 minutes left of regulation time.
A 1-1 score in a cup tie offers a lot of possibilities. Last week, Lyon failed to break down Nicosia, went through to extra time, and after 120 minutes, lost a penalty shootout. Last night, Bayern Munich tied the aggregate against Basel at 1-1 10 minutes into the match, and then proceeded to score 6 more goals from just before halftime to the rest of the game. With 15 minutes left, it looked more likely like OM-Inter would follow the Lyon blueprint.
The game opened up though. Whereas in the build-up to the goal, it was all Inter pressure on OM, with a Chinese-water torture intensity as happens often, afterwards both sides took opportunities and missed scoring and taking the aggregate lead by narrow margins. The clock entered the 3 minutes of extra time, and it looked sure that the two teams would play another 30 minutes.
Except Steve Mandanda, who had made a series of great saves for OM throughout the night, solidifying his reputation as one of the top keepers in France, sent a long ball off a free kick in his end. One of those typical balls towards the opposition's penalty area that usually gets cleared easily, or boxed around a bit, or controlled and then lost, or doesn't even land on the pitch. Nothing to get excited about, if not for the context.
And then the ball hit its target more or less, glancing off the back of Brandao, a substitute striker who had come on two minutes earlier and had been added back to Marseille's team from Brazil only in the winter break. Brandao, a strong fellow, had been backing up towards the Inter goal to maintain position and get the ball; he turned as the ball neared, hit him on the back, and fell perfectly to his left foot. He had a half-step on the defender, had his countryman Julio Cesar guessing the wrong way, and blasted a straight shot past the keeper and into the net. 1-1. Match.
Well, there was some tomfoolery in the aftermath. Inter pressed, got a breakaway, and thinking only of the moment, Mandanda went and tackled Giuseppe Pazzini, leading to a yellow card and a penalty. The penalty wasn't a big deal - Pazzini scored, but the match ended there, with OM winning 2-2 with the away goals tiebreaker (they scored one, Inter didn't). Mandanda, however, already had a yellow card earlier in the game, meaning he drew a red as well and as such a one-game suspension from the next round of the Champions League, where Marseille will have two games in the quarterfinal.
(Mandanda's quote regarding this, as per Ligue1.com: "It's hard...I'm above all disappointed with my first yellow. The assistant referee told me to go and get the ball, I did, and the ref gave me a yellow. APOEL Nicosia would be a good draw for us." - In other words, sucks I got a card, I hope we draw the team from the tiny country that everybody wants to play. Cliches didn't completely pop after the Brandao goal.)
All the same, Marseille's run in the Champions League epitomizes much of the joy in sports, and also the folly in trying to read too much into it. Marseille made the knockout round due to an improbable turn of events - they came back from 2-0 down away to Borussia Dortmund to win that match 2-3 with two goals in the final five minutes, allowing them to just over leap Olympiacos. In the first leg at home against Inter, Andre Ayew scored the only goal and winner on a corner on just about the last situation of the match, a corner. And now this match. OM continues to struggle in Ligue1, and this will have to provide a huge spark for them to catch Lille or anybody else for the 3rd or 4th place spots. Their season will still probably be considered a frustrating slog, a disappointment for a dominant team such as OM.
At the same time, they haven't made the Champions League quarterfinals since they won the whole thing in 1993. Their advance helps Ligue 1's UEFA coefficient for future European qualifications. And while they don't want to draw Barcelona or Real Madrid, just like everybody else, and Bayern Munich is probably a cut above them, nobody else among the quarterfinalists - Apoel, AC Milan, Chelsea or Napoli, Benfica, CSKA Moscow if they shock Real - is beyond Marseille's grasp.
Considering Marseille's luck, it wouldn't be surprising to see them get a winnable fixture next round, and no more surprising to see them actually win it. The last chance paid off, and Marseille lives to fight out of another corner. Football means little more than that.
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