One former Gunner denies other former Gunner's goals and eliminates Marseille

Olympique Marseille were certainly the favourite in the first leg of qualifications for the Champions League. And yet they were defeated in Athens by Panathinaikos (1-0), so the full Velodrome was just slightly concerned tonight in the rematch. After all, it’s only 90 minutes, and many outsiders managed to win against all odds. Certainly, for the club with this statue, anything but a win would be a disaster. The club has a team worth more than 308 million euros, they have a new coach and eight new players. Everything was ready for the Champions League and the title chase in Ligue 1, so the pressure was high, and fear of the failure was there. And then it happened, Marseille bottled it. After the perfect night for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and his potential two goals winner, in came Matteo Guendouzi who managed to kick out his team out of the Champions League in less than an hour: Marseille – Panathinaikos 2-1 (3-5 after penalties).

Since Marcelino took over as the new coach, he brought in new players and former Arsenal midfielder was moved to the bench. Yet, after a great display and two goal lead, the Spanish tactician decided to switch one former Gunner with another, in order to get more strength in the middle of the pitch. But in the 97th minute, Guendouzi handballed in the penalty area, causing a 2-1 score, which meant overtime. And after nothing happened in the next 30 minutes, penalty shootout followed. The only player to miss his penalty? - Matteo Guendouzi.

Olympique is still in some sort of consolidation, considering they have a new coach (Marcelino forces a totally opposite style that of Igor Tudor) and have eight new players, so they still don’t have the necessary cohesion, which will come over time. But, tonight they worked as a unit and had a huge help from their biggest acquisition - Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. Former Arsenal captain scored a brace, created chances for his teammates, ran like hell and was unstoppable tonight. After terrible ending of his Arsenal career, and pale episodes in Barcelona and particularly Chelsea, it looked that the 34-year-old was destined for the last big contract in Saudi Arabia. But he chose the French giant and signed a contract with obviously a lot of ambition and wish to prove to all doubters that he still has it. And he does, when he is motivated.

He made life easier to both his teammates and fans by scoring the first goal in the second minute of the match, after another new player, Ismaila Sarr made a perfect pass in open space. In the whole first half, the guests could hardy come out of their own half, but Marseille didn’t used a number of great chances from Aubameyang, Ndiaye and Ounahi. But the former Dortmund striker doubled the lead at the beginning of the second half and at that point it seemed all over. Still, the home players became a bit deconcentrated, so the guests took over in possession, knowing that only one goal would be enough for the extra time. And then came in Guendouzi, who turned out to be a game changer, but for his own team. Their most expensive player ever, Vitinha, came in and missed a sitter in overtime, so he, alongside Ndiaye and Ounahi should feel a bit guilty too. It could have been 3-0 in the first half alone, and yet they missed so the 97th minute penalty (after a VAR check) have the Greeks a chance to compete next week with Braga for the Champions League spot, while Marseille will go to the Europa League.