Marseilles (AFP)

Olympique de Marseille must already heal their "ego", insists Florian Thauvin, finally taking points in the Champions League on Wednesday against FC Porto, before thinking of anything more ambitious.

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"The lowest point"

"I want the match to start, launches André Villas-Boas, I do not want to talk too much today. It's the fourth game we are going to play and the words do not go with the actions: three defeats, no goal scored ... "lists the Marseille coach.

"We have hit our lowest point, now we have to get something," he said.

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"Look at yourself in a mirror"

"Concretely, at a given moment, you have to have a little ego, to look at yourself in a mirror, as a competitor you cannot accept that", insists Thauvin during the pre-match press conference.

OM's disastrous course in C1, zero points, zero goals, "it hurts", underlines the winger.

"Personally, I find it difficult to assume it, I have a feeling of shame, when you play in a club like OM, so powerful, with so many supporters ..."

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Get out of the nightmare

His trainer does not want to mention a goal, certainly not the qualification, always possible mathematically.

André Villas-Boas even evokes only lip service to third place and a transfer to the Europa League, which would risk consuming forces in view of the fight for a place on the podium in Ligue 1, the real objective.

Even though Porto is "a first match point, I don't think about that", said the Portuguese.

"If we get out of this European nightmare, maybe it's better, we could leave too much strength in the league."

"Honestly, this European experience that we dreamed of since last season has already hurt us a lot", insists Villas-Boas.

Obviously, thinking of the C3 final reached in 2018, returning to this competition would be "maybe well, it would not be negative, but that does not let you recover with the overloaded calendar ..."

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The cut, a bad or a good?

With two matches against Lens and Nice postponed because the Covid hit these teams, OM have not played for 19 days.

This represents advantages and disadvantages.

"It's complicated to go on every three days", notes Thauvin, who explains "that at the end of October we were starting to be tired. But it's not great either to have 19 days without playing".

He is at least "sure of one thing: we worked well, we cleared our heads, let's hope that this will materialize on the pitch" against Porto.

For "AVB", the first break due to the match against Lens "did us good psychologically and physically, but that of 19 days is not very good, we would have liked to play against Nice, it would have been good for some players lack confidence ".

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A "life and death" match

"Marseille can still believe in it, keep the flame alive," the "portista" coach, Sérgio Conceiçao, is wary.

"We must not only see their course in this competition but also what they are doing in the league because if they win their two games late they are first," he warns.

"It's a life-to-death match for them," warns midfielder Sérgio Oliveira.

- Qualification in sight -

Second, Porto can take a big step towards qualification if they win at the Vélodrome.

"We are in a good position to qualify and the result of this match is very important in this sense", notes Sérgio Conceiçao.

For Sérgio Oliveira, "we have all the ingredients to be victorious and get closer to the round of 16".

© 2020 AFP