Saturday’s defeat at the hands of Sochaux (0-1) at the Stade Vélodrome has slowed down OM’s progress in the League. OM are in a race for third spot in the League and a ticket for the preliminary round of the Champion’s League. That spot has been held since the round 20 game by AS Nancy Lorraine. Marseille are no looking for their opponents to slip up. But the defeat to Sochaux and Nancy’s win over Metz (2-1) leaves the team from the Lorraine six points ahead of OM with eight games left in the League. «We’re quite a way behind now. If we want to finish in third place, we have to take six or seven points more than Nancy do » comments OM’s coach Eric Gerets. He will not be content finishing in fourth or fifth place next May, even looking at the progress his team has made since he took the position  : «Fourth place would allow us to take part in next season’s UEFA Cup. If someone had said to me at the start of October that at the end of the season we would be in fifth place I would have taken it straigh away. But now after all we have achieved, I cannot be satisfied finishing in fifth or even fourth place.»
Eric Gerets knows that OM’s task is not an easy one  : «With the run in that we have it’s going to be difficult. Nancy,apart from being a really good team, have also had a bit of luck on their side. If we cannot refind the good form we have had recently, it will be just about impossible. What worries me the most is that in the last few games we have been unable to put team’s under the same kind ofpressure that we managed to do not long ago » he regrets.
The Belgian is also looking in the rearview mirror at the teams that are chasing his club, Nice, Le Mans or even Lille & Lorient : «We have to look ahead of us, but we mustn’t forget those teams behind us. In losing this game we have missed out on a really great chance to be a bit more at ease. Unfortunately for us, we now have to keep an eye in both directions » he concludes.