Tuesday, November 01, 2022

Olympique de Marseille

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 cafĂ©, 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!






Attendance: 50,768
Admission: 70.00 Eur
Programme: Not issued









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