Marseille V PSG Last Sunday

Well folks, long time no blog. Been pretty tired this week. Last weekend I traveled to Marseille to see l’OM v PSG in Ligue 1. This is the “Clasico” of French football.

The atmosphere around the city center on Sunday was electric. From around two in the afternoon (game was not until 9) there were gangs of l’OM fans wandering the streets chanting “Paris, Paris, On Ta Tu” (not sure of spelling) basically means Paris, Paris we will kill you.

After a few pints at “O’Malley’s” and a chat with exiled Grimsby Town fan Chris, we headed for the Stade Velodrome. There were riot cops all over the place but they weren’t bothered by people drinking cans on the street. They were more concerned with protecting the Paris fans busses that were soon to arrive.

In the stadium the threats to kill Paris continued and the Ultras put on some magnificent displays.

There are four Ultras groups. This picture shows the South terrace or “Virage Sud” which is home to the “South Winners” (top and sides) and the “Commando Ultras 84″ (bottom).

The “Virage Nord” (North Terrace) is home to the Yankee and Dodgers Ultra groups.

Every time there was a corner to PSG the taker would get pelted with objects such as food, plastic bottles, cans and intead of the uproar like at home the ordinary fans cheered them on. The north and south terraces were also singing back and forth at each other on occasions. The jumping up and down songs were amazing and you could feel the ground shake beneath you. I hadn’t a great view of the PSG lot even though they weren’t too far away but I don’t think they had a big display, just the Tifo flags, two sticks, one sticks and loads of flares. There were some flares on the pitch too. Great atmosphere all round.

The game itself wasn’t fantastic. L’OM started cagily and left big gaps in midfield that PSG were only too willing to exploit. The game sprang to life when PSG were awarded a controversial penalty when Bonnart won the ball from a PSG player outside the box but the referee deemed it to be a foul inside! Rothen stepped up to take the penalty and put it in the back of the net. The referee decided that a L’OM player impeeded him and made him take it again (I think this is a bizarre rule btw). He stepped up coolly and did it again. 0-1.

After this initial setback Marseille woke up and began to dominate. Taiwo headed them level on 36 minutes after some poor keeping from Landreau who was pretty dodgy throughout. Niang then put L’OM ahead almost on the stroke of half time with a superb finish from a tight angle.

The second half was a damp squib football wise and was characterised by several missed sitters from Cisse and Paris throwing in the towel. Over all though it was a good experience and we’re talking about going over again next year for a game.

Match Report Here

(Photo’s from Fab’s phone)

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~ by Marcas MacCaoimhín on February 23, 2008.