Marseille v Newcastle preview ahead of Champions League clash | OneFootball

Welcome to the Marseille v Newcastle preview.

Tuesday 25th November – An 8pm (UK time) kick-off.

The Toon will be looking to build upon an incredible victory against Man City over the weekend when travelling to Southern France to do battle with the formidable Olympique de Marseille on Tuesday night.

The 3,000+ travelling fans will have to be in fine voice to make themselves heard in the intimidating Velodrome atmosphere in front of over sixty-thousand home supporters.

Newcastle United will be hoping to cement themselves in the top eight of the Champions League with a victory, as we are more than holding our own when going toe-to-toe with the elite of the continent.

Newcastle have played four Champions League matches this season and won three of them. An unlucky 2-1 defeat at home to Barcelona was followed up with a brilliant 4-0 win away to Union S-G. Since then we’ve enjoyed home victories over Benfica and Athletic Bilbao. We’ve scored ten goals so far and conceded just two. Our nine points has us sixth in a thirty-six team table as we look to qualify automatically for the knockout stage by staying in the top eight. A win would give us twelve points from five matches and all results going our way could even see us near the very top of the Champions League.

Marseille, in contrast to their excellent league form, are struggling in Europe this season. Three defeats in four games has them stuck in a disappointing twenty-fifth place on just three points. They hammered Ajax 4-0 but have lost away to Real Madrid and Sporting Lisbon, plus at home to Atalanta. They’ve scored six goals and conceded nine. A win over United could lift them into the top twenty-four. Under this new look format, teams who finish between ninth and twenty-fourth enter a play-off round for a place in the last sixteen.

Last time out

Newcastle hosted Man City at the weekend and enjoyed the highlight of the season so far in a fabulous win against one of the best teams in Europe. Harvey Barnes had a great opportunity to open the scoring after just twenty-seven seconds that was well saved by the ‘keeper and when Woltemade forced two good saves before half-time, the Toon Army could be forgiven for thinking it wasn’t going to be their day. A glorious second-half however saw a Harvey Barnes brace seal a fantastic 2-1 for Eddie Howe’s side with brilliant individual performances all over the pitch ensuring a phenomenal victory for the black and whites.

Marseille’s last two games have come against Nice and Brest (I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere!). They travelled away to Nice on Friday night and absolutely took their opponents apart in a 5-1 rout. They were 2-0 up at halftime and looking comfortable, they added another two before Nice pulled one back to slightly reduce the arrears. There was still time for another as Marseille ran away with the Derby de la Mediterranée. They’re up to second in the French league with designs on wrestling the title from PSG who have won it four times in a row.

Stat attack!

This will be the tenth trip to France in United’s competitive European history.

The Toon have only enjoyed one competitive victory on French soil, a 4-0 win against Sochaux in the 04/05 UEFA Cup under Greame Souness.

Newcastle’s record in France reads four defeats, four draws and one win with the most recent being a controversial draw away at PSG, where we were robbed of a win by a ninety-eighth minute penalty that never should have been given.

Memorable match

In 03/04, the Toon put the disappointment of a Champions League play-off defeat behind them to reach the latter stages of the UEFA Cup with aggregate wins over Breda, Basel, Valarenga, Mallorca and PSV Eindhoven. Newcastle and Marseille faced off in a two-legged semi-final. The tie was very much in the balance after a scoreless first leg that is best remembered for Drogba hitting the post for Marseille and Bridges blasting an effort wide late on when through on goal with the opportunity to write himself into NUFC folklore.

The second leg would hinge upon whether or not United could find the away goal that would put them in pole position to make the final. Unfortunately, a non-performance was punished by two well-taken Drogba goals as the Toon limped out of Europe on a night that promised so much but delivered so little. Final Score Marseille 2-0 Newcastle (aggregate 2-0)

Played for both

Hatem Ben Arfa played three years for Marseille and scored nine goals in sixty-three appearances. He was loaned to the Toon in 2010 and made an instant impact when scoring an absolute belter away at Everton on his full debut. Unfortunately, he was stretchered off in only his fourth game when suffering an horrific injury away at Man City and was out for the rest of the season. Despite this, United had seen enough and signed him up permanently. A scorer of some brilliant goals, perhaps the highlight of his time on Tyneside came in the 11/12 season when he was an integral part of the team that finished fifth in the league. Astonishing strikes against Blackburn and Bolton had his dribbling ability compared to Messi. He played five years at Newcastle and scored thirteen goals.

Remy Cabella had a two year spell at NUFC from 2014 but struggled to make the grade. His one highlight was a brilliant goal away to Hull City in a 3-0 win under John Carver but this was to be the only time he’d find the net in a black and white shirt. Few tears were shed when he was loaned to Marseille in 2016. He spent three years at Les Phoceens scoring eight goals in sixty-six appearances.

Chancel Mbemba signed for Steve McClaren in 2015. He quickly established himself into our first team and stuck with the Toon as Rafa Benitez repaired the damage following a disastrous relegation in 2016. His one goal for the club came on the day we snatched the title from Brighton by beating Barnsley 3-0 while Chris Hughton’s seagulls could only manage a draw with Aston Villa. He spent three years at NUFC before signing for Porto in 2018 where he is a cult hero for scoring both goals in a 2-1 Cup Final success. He eventually signed for Marseille in 2022, scoring seven goals in sixty-one appearances.

Managers

Eddie Howe after a 2-1 win against Man City:

“It’s been a long wait for a win against Pep. He’s an incredible manager. We’re just delighted to win tonight. The heart, the endeavour, the attitude of the group pleased me today compared to the game against Brentford, where we looked tired, that was a big upturn. Very very pleased – it should give us a big lift in a tough Premier League season. The challenge now is to keep it up. We have two huge games against Marseille and Everton now. We need to have the identity we played with today.”

Roberto De Zerbi after a 5-1 win away to Nice:

“We played well against a strong team. For them, it’s a derby. It was a tense match. We needed to play better in the second half but everything’s fine. We won and scored five goals. We’re provisionally top of the table. It feels good!”

As it is an away match, Newcastle United fans will not be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end, for the food bank. However, you can still help out and all online cash donations are very much appreciated. For further info and/or to donate to the food bank online go HERE.

This is an absolutely massive match for NUFC where a win would move us a huge step closer to automatic qualification to the next phase. A superb victory over Manchester City may well have given us a timely boost as we look to add some consistency to a stop-start season. Hopefully we haven’t exerted ourselves too much and still have something left in the tank for what promises to be a difficult match. I think we’ll go looking for a positive result and come away with a hard-earned draw. Marseille 1-1 Newcastle