Olympique de Marseille 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2 - UEFA Champions League, Group Stage
Marseille
is the oldest city in France as well as one of Europe’s oldest continuously
inhabited settlements. It was founded around 600BC by Greek settlers from
Phocaea and known as Massalia. Marseille has been a trading port since ancient
times and is the third-largest metropolitan area in France after Paris and
Lyon. In 1792, the city became a focal point of the French Revolution and though
France’s national anthem was born in Strasbourg, it was first sung by
volunteers from Marseille, hence the name the crowd gave it: La Marseillaise.
Olympique de Marseille was founded
as Omnisport Club in 1892 by Rene Dufaure. Initially known as US Phoceenne and
Football Club de Marceille, the current name was adopted five years later
acknowledging the founding of the city and the Greek heritage. At first Rugby
Union was the focus of the club with football starting in 1902. In 1986 Bernard
Tapie became president and transformed the fortunes of the club. Between 1989
and 1992 four league titles were won. The club also reached the European Cup
Final in 1991 (a narrow defeat to Red Star Belgrade on penalties) and again in
1993 when victory over AC Milan was secured courtesy of Basile Boli’s goal in
Munich.
The journey to Marseille via Paris, facilitated
an arrival at my hotel early evening the day before the match. The frequent bus
services from the airport take you to Gare de Marseille-Saint-Charles, the main transport hub for the
city. Conveniently, this is where I was staying. After checking in, I had the
opportunity to explore the city. My immediate impression was that this was a
rather tired and shabby place, interwoven with historic charm and character.
At a café, a short distance from
the View Port area, this Pieman enjoyed his Tandoori Chicken Naan, ensuring a
thirst that required quenching. Having explored the area a little, my travelling
companion and I settled at a very small bar away from the bank holiday/halloween
throng that had engulfed this part of town. A few beers later when settling our
bill, the proprietors insisted on buying us a last drink. This was consumed
listening to music and singing where we also encountered a woman who told us
she had danced with Midge Ure! “He wasn’t very tall and only came up to here”
she told us!
Visiting Stade Velodrome is not
the most comfortable experience and you get the impression that despite
charging top dollar, they do not really want you there. We were escorted to the
stadium on a fleet of buses. The operation was at best shambolic. I had walked
to the stadium earlier in the day, taking around 35 minutes. The bus journey
took longer, as we were transported to the north of the city before looping
back south via numerous diversions. The gendarmerie, in conducting entry to the
stadium, were abrupt and obstructive (welcome to France) – surprise surprise!!
The stadium has a wonderful
reputation and does look impressive from the outside and in some parts inside.
However, closer inspection reveals something bland and rather outdated. It is
also rather dirty, much in keeping with a lot of Marseille. As is often the
case on the continent, netting impedes your view of the playing area. The home
support was loud and bouncy as befits their reputation. I agree with the
pre-match hype about this being a hostile environment to visit and those
supporters are the main factor in this.
One end of the ground was closed
for this encounter by UEFA, following crowd problems at an earlier match. Tottenham
Hotspur rode their luck in this final group stage match. The last kick winning goal
ensured finishing top of this most topsy turvy group. Our buses were parked
inside the stadium and having been locked in at the end for an hour, we then endured
another magical mystery tour before reaching our hotel around 01:15 – over two
hours from when the match ended – Vive la France!
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