“I imagine Marseille was going to the end”
Zapping Foot National Top 10 Gambardella Cup winners
He is necessarily in a very good position to talk about it. While Olympique de Marseille is expected in Greece this Thursday evening for its quarter-final second leg of the Europa League Conference against PAOK (2-1 victory in the first leg), Mathieu Valbuena spoke before this meeting which hot announcement. The former OM player (2006-2014), who has been playing at Olympiakos since 2019, in any case sees the Phocaeans getting out of the trap in Salonika. And this, despite the packages of Arek Milik, Boubacar Kamara and Gerson.
“She is neither the most beautiful nor the most watched, but it’s still a European Cup”
“If the Marseillais, despite the absences, are at their level, with the necessary concentration and application, they will pass, estimates Mathieu Valbuena with the Parisian this Thursday. Even if PAOK surprised me a bit in the second half of the first leg, OM are still superior to them in all areas. Especially in quality. Outside, this team is also particularly formidable this season. After that it’s still a match and the goal scored by the Greeks at the Orange Vélodrome maintains the suspense a bit,” adds the former French international (52 caps, 8 goals).
Jorge Sampaoli’s players, who will also have to deal with a boiling atmosphere, are in any case “clearly” favorites for the final victory according to Mathieu Valbuena. “On paper, at least, OM have nothing to envy to the teams still in the running. The level of the participants seems to me to be homogeneous. 37-year-old playmaker. The supposed value of an opponent is always judged on the pitch. But I can imagine the Olympians going all the way. There will always be some sad people to put this Europa League Conference into perspective. It is not neither the most beautiful nor the most watched, I agree, but it’s still a European Cup. It creates a craze and is good for a club in the face of many setbacks on the European scene in recent years, if we puts aside the 2018 final in the Europa League”, recalls the former ex-Phocéen.
to summarize
He is necessarily in a very good position to talk about it. While Olympique de Marseille is expected in Greece this Thursday evening for its quarter-final second leg of the Europa League Conference against PAOK (2-1 victory in the first leg), Mathieu Valbuena spoke before this meeting which hot announcement. The former OM player (2006-2014), who has been playing at Olympiakos since 2019, in any case sees the Phocaeans getting out of the trap in Salonika. And this, despite the packages of Arek Milik, Boubacar Kamara and Gerson.