Marseille to bounce back from European disappointment? | OneFootball

After being eliminated from the Europa League on Thursday, an Olympique de Marseille side on the rebound welcome ESTAC Troyes to the Orange Vélodrome this weekend.

Olympique de Marseille - ESTAC Troyes Sunday at 20:45 CET (1945 GMT)

>> LIVE SCORING, STATS AND COMMENTARY

Marseille had started this season with high hopes of making an impression on the continental stage, but they were brought crashing back down to earth with a thumping 4-2 defeat away to Galatasaray in Istanbul on Thursday. Jorge Sampaoli’s side fell behind early on and then saw Duje Ćaleta-Car put through his own net before half-time. They were three goals behind before Arkadiusz Milik salvaged some semblance of pride, and the Pole struck another late consolation after Galatasaray had got their fourth of the night in Turkey.

OM, who had drawn their first four matches in Group E, are now unable to catch either Galatasaray or Lazio and will host Lokomotiv Moscow early next month with the only aim of securing a draw to clinch third place in their section and the consolation prize of a spot in the knockout phase of the third-tier UEFA Europa Conference League in the new year. Damagingly, Marseille - former Champions League winners - have won just one of their last 19 European matches, losing 13.

“Of course it is disappointing. We had hoped to qualify, that was our aim, but really our hopes of qualifying were killed in the previous matches,” Sampaoli said. “The most important thing for this young squad is to think of tomorrow, to look ahead to Sunday and realise that in every competition we need to be better and quickly become more mature. If we don’t start doing better in adversity then this project is not going to work.”

Highlights: Marseille's last league game was a 0-0 draw with Metz

Milik, who doubled his goal tally for the season in the space of 18 second-half minutes, added: “It wasn’t the Marseille I want to see in every match. What more can I say, I am disappointed. It is difficult to say anything more but the next game is on Sunday and all we can do is prepare for that and be ready to win.”

Poor form

Marseille have not been doing much winning of late, though. Never mind their woeful recent record in Europe, OM have won just two of their last 12 outings in all competitions. Those victories have come at home to FC Lorient and away at Clermont. Since going unbeaten through their first six Ligue 1 Uber Eats games this season, Sampaoli’s side have picked up just nine points from a possible 21, hardly the form of a club with ambitions of a top-three finish and Champions League qualification.

Any hopes they had of picking up momentum again were hardly helped by the abandonment of last Sunday’s clash with Olympique Lyonnais after Dimitri Payet was struck on the head by a bottle thrown from the crowd. That match will be replayed at a later date, but Marseille ended last weekend in fifth position, just three points adrift of OGC Nice in second place and with a game in hand.

Payet can return here after serving a suspension against Galatasaray, while it remains to be seen if Gerson is given another chance. The Brazilian midfielder cost a reported €22 million when he arrived in the close season but he has yet to convince since arriving in France and his display in Istanbul was again disappointing. In any case Valentin Rongier is available to come back into the midfield.

Highlights: Troyes beaten by Sant-Etienne

Rami returns

The visit of Troyes means the return of a former favourite to the Vélodrome. World Cup-winning centre-back Adil Rami spent two seasons at Marseille and was a regular in the team that got to the final of the Europa League in 2018. Now 35, the centre-back returned to Ligue 1 at the start of this campaign when he joined newly-promoted Troyes having spent last season in Portugal with Boavista.

Rami only made his Troyes debut in mid-October but has gone on to start five straight matches, and even scored his first goal for Laurent Batlles’ side in a 2-2 draw with Stade Rennais FC a month ago. Nevertheless, despite the introduction of such an experienced player, Troyes head south having lost their last two matches.

Defeats against RC Lens (4-0) and AS Saint-Etienne (1-0) left the club from the Champagne region sitting above the bottom three only on goal difference. However, they may see this game as something of a free hit as they eye December home matches against Lorient, Girondins de Bordeaux and Stade Brestois 29.

“We need to keep picking up points before the winter break. The objective is to have at least 20 points from our first 19 matches. Otherwise we could find ourselves getting left behind. December will be very important because we will be playing at home to teams who are in the same league as us,” captain Jimmy Giraudon told the club’s website, estac.fr.

Sunday’s match will be played behind closed doors as a punishment for Marseille following incidents in their recent home meeting with Paris Saint-Germain.

Possible teams

Marseille: Lopez; Saliba, Balerdi, Peres; Rongier, Kamara, Payet, Guendouzi; Harit, Milik, De La Fuente

Troyes:  Gallon ; Biancone, Rami, Giraudon, Salmier, Koné ; Dingomé, Kouamé, Tardieu, Baldé ; Touzghar