OM clinched their ticket to the quarter-finals by eliminating PSG, joining Lyon, who eliminated Lille, and Nantes, who beat Angers.
Source AFP
© NICOLAS DUCAT / AFP
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Lhe matches were tight for this new day of the Coupe de France. But Olympique Marseille achieved the feat: it offered a victory against Paris SG (2-1). In a volcanic Vélodrome stadium, the Marseillais offered themselves an extremely rare success to win a ticket for the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France, like Lyon and Nantes, qualified in extremis on Wednesday. Marseille had been waiting for this for more than ten years. To see OM win PSG at home, you had to go back to November 27, 2011 (3-0 in Ligue 1)!
The flavor is even sweeter for OM, because this is a cutthroat match, against the record holder of victories in the competition (14 crowns), and because the meeting clearly plunges PSG into doubt, a week of his Champions League round of 16 first leg against Bayern Munich on Tuesday. Without Kylian Mbappé, injured, PSG proved to be without ideas, amorphous and overwhelmed in intensity. Neymar and Lionel Messi failed to take advantage of the large spaces left in the depths and the Parisian copy in the midfield was very worrying in view of the C1…
L’OM favorite
On the other hand, Igor Tudor’s team showed constant ardor, like Ruslan Malinovskyi’s winning goal, a powerful left-footed shot (57e). Previously, Alexis Sanchez had opened the scoring on penalty (31e) and Sergio Ramos equalized with a header (45e + 2). Already eliminated at this stage of the event last season, PSG fell again very early in the Coupe de France: since 2001, the capital club had not failed two years in a row before the quarters…
OM, winners for the last time in 1989, are now the favorites of this 2023 edition, with a calendar released since elimination from the European Cup… But, before that, the revenge of the classic OM-PSG promises to to be epic in Ligue 1, still at the Vélodrome, from February 26.
Will Marseille inherit another French cador in the quarterfinals in the draw on Thursday? Olympique Lyonnais is one of the candidates, after its qualification snatched on penalties against Lille (2-2, 4-2 pens), thanks in particular to its goalkeeper Anthony Lopes, decisive before the attempt of Mohamed Bayo. Struggling in the Championship, OL are reborn in the Cup, with the hope of lifting a trophy which they have been missing since 2012, and which would undoubtedly save their season. The Lyonnais are doing well because, despite two quick goals from Rayan Cherki and Alexandre Lacazette, they had gradually fallen apart and were punished by a penalty from Jonathan David and a goal from Edon Zhegrova.
In another shock between Ligue 1 teams, FC Nantes snatched their qualification on penalties on the lawn of Angers (1-1, 4-2 pens), and keeps alive their chances of an improbable double after his victorious epic last season.
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Rodez creates the surprise
The surprise of the evening came from Auxerre, beaten against Rodez, resident of Ligue 2 (3-2). The RAF reached the quarter-finals of the Cup for the third time in their history. Toulouse for its part spent a quiet evening against Reims, easily mastered (3-1). The Champenois suffer their first defeat in competition since September 18. The “Tom Thumb” of 4e division (N2), Vierzon, for his part measured the gap which separated him from the professional world by losing against Grenoble (1-0).
Finally, Paris FC left the competition at the end of the suspense, at home against Annecy in this Ligue 2 duel (1-1, 6-5 on pens). It took 16 shots on goal to decide between the 2 teams! There will therefore be three L2 clubs in the quarter-finals. The round of 16 ends Thursday with a Lorient-Lens poster, at 9 p.m., preceded by the draw for the quarters.