PLAYER RATINGS | Marseille 4-0 Villarreal: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leads Marcelino’s humiliation on return to Stade Vélodrome

The atmosphere was smouldering ahead of the teams coming out, as the Olympique de Marseille fans awaited the figure of one man. The man who had led the team at the start of the season but had left after exceptional circumstances.

He had quit days ahead of the club’s opening fixture in the Europa League against Ajax alleging severe threats, intimidation, and slander from sections of the supporters. And weeks later still angry at his treatment, slated those same fans that had forced him out “ Some radical supporters want to constantly influence events preventing it from being a big club. ”

It was of course some cosmic injustice for Marcelino that he would have to make his return to the Stade Vélodrome this season while feelings still ran “ hot ” as Amine Harit had warned. Villarreal had even gone to the lengths of hiring private security for their manager. And as he stepped out onto a pitch he had probably wished to never see again he was met with the wall of sound. 

It was a feeling that the Marseille team would hope to utilise as they tried to navigate the opening leg of their Europa League Round of 16 tie and make it four wins in a row for their fourth manager of the season; Jean-Louis Gasset. 

Villarreal understood this and tried from the first whistle to dampen the noisy crowd. They looked to break up the momentum of the game with clever fouls that prevented Marseille from finding their flow. They would delay their set pieces waiting until the exact right moment to play the ball. And when they went down, they stayed down. 

12 | Marseille 0-0 Villarreal: Merlin picks up a clumsy yellow. A balanced affair to the start of the game. Villarreal doing well to dampen what was proving to be a noisy crowd ahead of the game.

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