BENFICA LISBON - OM

Thursday March 11 2010 at 21h00 - Estadio da Luz

Europa League - Last 16 first leg

Referee: Félix Brych (GER)

M6

After Copenhagen, OM are about to open another Europa League parenthesis. A competition which allows OM to compare themselves, indirectly for the moment, with a number of Europe’s top clubs like Liverpool, Valencia or Juventus! But, after having dealt, rather easily, with FC Copenhagen, who had not restarted their domestic competition, Olympique de Marseille next opponents are Benfica Lisbon. “It’s the next level up from Copenhagen, there is no comparison, underlines Didier Deschamps. This club has a European history and experience. They could have been in the Champions League. Of the remaining sides in the Europa League, Benfica are one of the better teams”.

If everyone remembers OM’s elimination, on an April evening in 1990, from a goal scored by the hand of Vata, few are aware of the Benfica of today. However, this team are well worth taking a look at. “I saw three or four of their matches, the double confrontation against Hertha Berlin or their league matches, with the win over Porto for example. They are a team with a lot of attacking potential, Cardozo, Saviola, Aimar, Di Maria, Ramires”.
First in their league, Jorge Jesus’s side have a lot of arguments in their favour in Europe, notably with their attacking sector which is on the rampage in the Liga Sagres, the Portuguese first division. “They play attractive football, score a lot of goals, especially at home where they are very efficient”.

But, OM have the intention of continuing their good dynamic, barely halted by Lorient last weekend. OM have now gone six matches without defeat, a run which has put them back within shooting distance of the Ligue 1 leaders and which allows Didier Deschamps’s men to look forward to a happy future in Europe. “We are going into a first leg which is not decisive but which will allow one of the sides to position themselves well in view of the return leg. There are two objectives: to not concede and to try and score an away goal. I hope we will be capable of achieving both. Scoring is important away from home, but, against the attacking potential that Benfica possess we will have to know how to defend”.

Finally, if the frustration of the elimination in 1990 from Vata’s handball is still present with the supporters, it is not at all a worry for the OM coach. “It was twenty years ago, none of the players from the time are still active, it’s something for the history books. I can’t see myself mentioning it to the players as they would ask themselves what I was on about. Lucho has heard the story, but some of the players weren’t even born. There is no revenge in football. It’s another story and you cannot rewrite history. It’s up to us to write a new page, one that is a lot brighter than that of twenty years ago”.