BWFC 24

Postmatch Report – UEFA Cup – Away to Marseilles

Olympique Marseille 1 – 0 Bolton Wanderers

Ground: Stade Velodrome | Attendance: 38,351 | Referee: Missimo Busacca

• [25] Giannakopoulos – Bolton
• [45] Ribery – Marseilles
• [68] Ben Haim (og) – Marseilles

Writing this report is harder than writing out a sympathy card, such is the feeling of loss and deprivation. It has taken a few day to come to terms with the result. Bolton could have beaten Marseille at home and away, there is no doubt about that. Unfortunately blame must be shared between the officials refereeing the 180 minutes of football and a couple of schoolboy errors (but mainly the referees!).

In the first leg Bolton should have had at least one penalty and perhaps a couple of yellows should been handed out for time-wasting and play-acting which made the game stop-start constantly after the first 20 minutes. The game was not allowed to flow restricting The Wanderers. Although the referee at that game was more than happy to give free-kicks outside the penalty area he seemed to have a clear phobia of whistles when obvious fouls and handballs occurred within the Marseille box.

With a scoreless draw at The Reebok Bolton had the advantage when travelling to the Stade Velodrome because of the ‘away goals rule’.

A huge boisterous crowd met the teams as they ran out on to the pitch and once again Bolton took control for the opening minutes with creativity that provided a few goal scoring opportunities which were usually taken away by the former Man United goalkeeper, Fabian Barthez.

Jay-Jay Okocha swung in a number of passes dangerously into Marseile’s penalty area for the forwards. It was during one of these passes that saw flamboyant Barthez come off his line only to parry the ball conveniently down to the feet of Giannakopoulos who tapped the ball into the back of the net for Bolton’s all important first goal, his first in the tournament and ninth of the season. If the score remained the same Bolton were guaranteed a place in the last 16 and would be meeting Zenit St Petersburg next – even a draw now would take The Wanderers through.

After the goal Marseille were more cautious and kept possession more. The game slowed to but the referee kept the game flowing as best he could – it was a better game to watch than their previous encounter.

Marseille nearly equalised through a quick counterattack which saw Cana with a slight chance to score but found the side netting instead. O’Brien and Stelios combined well for the Greek winger to test Barthez who made a more convincing save this time.

Abdoulaye Faye broke free of Marseile’s defence and managed to score but was deemed offside in a close decision. Faye was unfairly booked for scoring after the whistle had gone and protested, signalling that he did not hear because of the noise of the crowd – a fair point especially as the ball was in the net a couple of seconds after the whistle was blown.

The first half was nearing its end with just a single minute added time. Bolton just had to keep possession to go into the break with their single gifted goal.

Samir Nasri pounced on a mistake by Bruno N’Gotty and hit a cross to the far post where the impressive Franck Ribery managed to nip between two defenders and plant a header into the corner.

However an unfortunate Bruno N’Gotty mistake gave away possession and Marseille made a quick break down the right side with Samir Nasri who made a great pass to Ribery who made an impressive header into Bolton’s net. It was a great goal but one that should not have happened in the last few seconds of the half.

Rallied by the intimidating amusing bouncing locals Marseille took control in the second half with Oruma shooting over the bar and Nasri testing Jussi Jaaskenlainen and going wide soon after.

Marseille kept the pressure high and Bolton began to struggle, but their crucial away goal kept hopes alive and The Trotter soldiered on.

Habib Beye made a threatening cross from the right which Tal Ben Haim slid in to clear only to send it past Jussi into the back of the net. It was an unfortunate and accidental own-goal which took Marseille into the lead and ultimately through to the next round after 68 minutes.

Five minutes later Henrik Pedersen got his first taste of first team football in four months after his Achilles injury. However the Dane was carried off an unlucky 13 minutes later following Cana made a hard challenge for which Cana was booked.

Henrik’s apparent injury added to the sadness of Bolton’s end of their involvement in The UEFA Cup. Perhaps The Wanderers would not have made the final in their first experience in European football – at the beginning of the campaign it was too much to expect. But the nature of their exit was shrouded in the misfortune of an own-goal, but the biggest mistake was not being able to hang on to the lead at half-time. If they could have kept possession during the last minute of the first half then the result may have been different – that goal was the turning point of the game. If Ben Haim’s calamitous own goal was the equaliser then Bolton surely could have hung on to their place in the last 16.

Bolton can not mourn the loss for too long as a place in Europe beckons by doing well in the Premiership and maybe a few less game can be turned into an advantage in both The Prem and The FA Cup.

As Sammy Lee said after the game:

“We are disappointed, after being in a winning position, to lose the game. But this isn’t the end of the journey, this is the start. We still have a lot of football to play.

“Maybe if we had got one of the penalties in the first leg it would have been different.”