Piraeus (Greece) (AFP)
Seven years later, Marseille is celebrating its comeback in the Champions League on Wednesday against Olympiakos Piraeus (9:00 p.m.), during a first day of the group stage whose major poster opposes the defending Bayern Munich to Atlético Madrid.
The Bavarians will be deprived of their star of the attack Serge Gnabry, tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday evening, and the Greeks of Piraeus of their Guinean midfielder Mady Camara, also affected by the virus.
In the aftermath of the failed entry of Paris SG against Manchester United (2-1) and the shy debut of the rookie Rennes against Krasnodar (1-1), France has its eyes turned to the port of Athens, where OM renews with a C1 that the club has not tasted since 2013.
Portuguese coach André Villas-Boas, the first to believe in this Champions League dream, brought the club back to the forefront.
He is advancing modestly, facing a rival more used to playing this event, narrowly eliminated last year in a difficult group, with Bayern, Tottenham and the Red Star of Belgrade.
But OM have history on their side, with "the golden star above the coat of arms", celebrating the triumph of 1993.
- Portuguese coaches, German coaches -
Marseille also has vengeful players who have not played in the Champions League for a long time, such as Steve Mandanda, Dimitri Payet or Florian Thauvin.
Opposite, an ex-Marseillais also has a fierce appetite, Mathieu Valbuena, who at 36 years old became the playing master of Olympiakos.
For Pedro Martins, the Portuguese coach of the "Erythrolefki" (red and white), his team, OM and Porto start on the same line for second qualifying place in Group C, Manchester City being the favorites.
Pep Guardiola's club receives FC Porto from Sergio Conceiçao in the other group match, after failing in the previous edition against Lyon, in the quarter-finals (3-1).
Three Portuguese coaches challenge "a benchmark coach, Guardiola", relieves "AVB" ... but it is for the time being the German technicians who rule in Europe: Jürgen Klopp with Liverpool in 2019, Hansi Flick at Bayern in 2020 .
The latter, who transformed Munich to lead them to the European title in August, hopes to set off again on Wednesday night with a very strong entry into contention against Diego Simeone's Atlético Madrid.
- The Bayern machine still irresistible?
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Between them, the "Rekordmeister" and the club "colchonero" have played six finals over the last eleven seasons.
The duel almost came to an end when Serge Gnabry tested positive on Tuesday evening.
Munich health authorities investigated whether he could have infected other players, and emergency tests were carried out on Wednesday morning.
"The match will take place as planned," however, a UEFA spokesperson told AFP in the early afternoon, adding that he did not have details of other positive tests.
Among the other posters scheduled for the evening, there are those of the difficult group B: Real Madrid, determined to erase the very bad impression left this weekend by its surprise defeat at home against the promoted Cadiz (1-0) , faces Shakhtar Donetsk, used to European parties.
In the other group match, Antonio Conte's Inter Milan receives Borussia Mönchengladbach from French Marcus Thuram, Alassane Pléa and Algerian Ramy Bensebaini.
Always prestigious, there is also an Ajax Amsterdam-Liverpool, which within seconds could have been the 2019 final, without a third goal from Lucas Moura for Tottenham in Amsterdam ...
Finally, watch the debut of the Danish champion, Midtjylland, against one of the heroes of last season, Atalanta Bergamo, eliminated in the very last minutes in the quarter-finals of the last edition by PSG (2-1).
© 2020 AFP