Olympique de Marseille knew that a draw in Rennes would secure third spot and Champions League qualification with a game to spare. But considering how many drubbings Bruno Génésio’s side have dished out at Roazhon Park this season, maybe a 2-0 defeat wasn’t all that bad. Rennes are still in with a shout of a top-three finish ahead of the last weekend of the campaign.
Here’s what some of the men involved had to say after the game in matchday 37’s Ligue 1 Sunday sounds.
Listen to matchday 36’s Sunday sounds here.
Rennes manager Bruno Génésio:
“I’m really proud, that’s what I like to see from my team and my players. It’s what we’ve done 95% of the time, especially at home. We’ve done it at the right moment too, I think. We showed that we had lots of character to bounce back from our poor performance in Nantes three days later, with qualities that I like in both our play and our mentality.”
“It’s encouraging because it’s what we need to be capable of doing. We won’t always dominate games comfortably, sometimes when you’re in front you need to be able to play with a lower block, defend well and make the most of counterattacking opportunities. We were able to do that tonight and we didn’t give up any chances against a really good team, so it’s encouraging. There’s one game left and we want to finish well.”
Marseille head coach Jorge Sampaoli:
“I think we lost out in phases of play which were mainly down to how we performed out of possession. We were slack when we had the ball, we couldn’t impose our style of play on them and our opponents were better.”
Watch Génésio and Sampaoli’s press conferences here.
Rennes forward Gaëtan Laborde:
“It was really important to us to put things right after Wednesday night. We played like men today, we knew we’d have to win our individual battles and play with intensity, which is what we did. After that, we were clinical in front of goal, which is a positive for us.”
“We’ve been fighting all year to be here, in the race (for a Champions League place). Now it’s up to us to do the business against Lille and we’ll see where we end up.”
“We were ready. As I said, we wanted to make up for losing the derby and I think we showed that on the pitch. The fans were amazing, they gave us that little extra boost and I think we deserved the victory today.”
“We played with a lot of intensity, we put everything into this game. We knew that would set the tone and the team stood up to be counted. I’m really proud of the guys today.”
OM midfielder Valentin Rongier:
“We didn’t play how we wanted to at all. We didn’t start well, we knew they’d put us under pressure. We weren’t able to do what we wanted to do and they were better than us tonight.”
“Of course we could’ve competed with them (physically and technically). It’s easy to say it after the game, we should’ve done it on the pitch. What’s certain is that we didn’t do what we needed to. We’ve got one game left which will decide if we achieve our objective (of finishing second). We’re going to do everything possible to take all three points next week.”