Genesio still sees a route to the top 24
Marseille arrive in Leverkusen on Thursday (9pm in France) with three Europa League games played and three defeats. Zero points, and a match against one of the strongest sides in the competition that already looks like a last chance.
The arithmetic is unforgiving. In the first two seasons of the new league-phase format, finishing in the top 24 took roughly nine or ten points, and eleven in a pinch. Bruno Genesio was asked repeatedly whether Marseille had quietly given up on Europe, and he rejected the idea. His club did not spend a year fighting to qualify only to waste the competition, he said, even if squad rotation means some players get rest. If Thursday goes badly, four matches would remain, worth 12 points, with three of them at home. Nine to eleven points, in his view, is still within reach.
Goalkeeper Jeffrey De Lange backed him up: it is not over until it is over, and the team has to keep going.
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The stands tell a different story
Supporters are less convinced. About 1,200 Marseille fans will be at the BayArena, which is a respectable number for an away trip but short of what European nights usually bring. Many stayed home after the results so far and the long journeys. The round trip to Sturm Graz alone meant 25 hours on a coach.
Rachid Zeroual, who leads the South Winners group, will make the trip anyway, out of love for the club and the city. Still, he admitted that in his own head he has moved on from Europe. His preference is for the club to concentrate on Ligue 1, where Marseille have won four in a row and face Lens and Le Mans next. If the club wants an adventure, he said, he would pick the Coupe de France. He tied the situation to the money problems and the failure to recruit, two issues he sees as linked.
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