Foot: it goes for Lyon and Marseille, not for Rennes and Monaco
Monaco and Rennes say stop, Lyon and Marseille again: the 8are final returns from the Europa League and the brand new Europa League Conference were fatal to half of the French clubs on Thursday. OL held off Porto (1-1) and kept the advantage of their success with the Dragons (1-0) to qualify for the C3 quarter, where they could find Barcelona or Atalanta. Lyon is the last hexagonal representative in the Europa League after ASM’s 1-1 loss to Braga, 4and of the Portuguese championship and winner 2-0 in the first leg.
Moussa Dembélé, found in depth by Léo Dubois, would have ideally launched the Gones (13and), quickly joined by Porto after a beautiful achievement by Pepê (27th). Peter Bosz’s men did not give in to a stifling end to the game. Similarly, OM will be the only French club in the quarter-finals of a C4 offering some big names like AS Rome or Leicester, who beat Rennes, despite a 2-1 success for the Bretons.
Marseille stronger than Basel
At the Louis-II stadium, despite losing 2-0 in the first leg, Philippe Clément believed “it was possible to do this reassembled “. The handball of his goalkeeper Alexander Nübel on a shot certainly blocked but distant from Abel Ruiz (20and) very quickly thwarted these hopes. The Belgian coach, who arrived in January on the Rock, is going through a bad patch: the club from the principality has won only one of its last eight games.
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In the new continental tournament launched this season, the third European Cup that is the Europa League Conference, Marseille ended up overcoming Basel with the same score as the first leg (2-1). Lety obtained a penalty then missed by Amine Harit (38th) initially looked like a bad turn. But the Marseillais quickly equalized after the opener of the former Niçois Dan Ndoye (63and), thanks to the Turkish Cengiz Under impeccable finish (74and). Then a flat foot from Valentin Rongier, served back at the entrance to the surface by Matteo Guendouzi, definitively freed Jorge Sampaoli (90and + 2).
It gets stuck for Rennes
At Roazhon Park, deliverance never came, even if Rennes believed in it until the end of more than six minutes of additional time. In line with the demonstration in Lyon last Sunday in Ligue 1 (4-2), Benjamin Bourigeaud ignited the match against Leicester, English champions 2016, by kicking down a cross from Martin Terrier (9and). A goal from Flavien Tait (76and) responded to the equalizer from a corner (51and) of the French defender of the Foxes, Wesley Fofana, back to competition seven months after his broken tibia.
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During the last twenty boiling minutes, the Rouge et Noir, stumbling over Kasper Schmeichel (85and), failed to snatch the extension. In these unsurprising eighth comebacks, Barcelona prepared the Clasico in the best way against Real Madrid on Sunday by winning at Galatasaray (2-1) thanks to two goals from Pedri and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on 7and since arriving in Catalonia this winter. And Atalanta, already victorious 3-2 in the first leg in Lombardy, won in extremis in Leverkusen (1-0) thanks to a tumble from Jérémie Boga who concluded closely (90and). Finally, AS Roma got scared but Tammy Abraham narrowly stopped them (90and + 1) extra time (1-1) against Vitesse Arnhem, beaten 1-0 in the first leg.