A match for the ages….

By: Magnusson | August 24th, 2007

On the eve of the 1998/1999 season, Marseille was without the shadow of a doubt the big favorite to win the championnat. We had just been bought by some billionaire name Robert Louis-Dreyfus (yes, he is the cousin of Seinfeld alum Julia) and were about to enter our centennial year with a fresh new team. We had world champions Laurent Blanc, Robert Pirès and Christophe Dugarry, Germany goalkeeper Andreas Kopke, italian striker Fabrizio Ravanelli, some african superstars in Guel Tchiressoua, Pierre Issa (at the time, he was the south african national team captain), Cyril Domoraud and Titi Camara. Add to those names some very experienced players like Daniel Bravo, Patrick
Blondeau, Florian Maurice, Jocelyn Gourvennec and Eric Roy. Sprinkle some homegrown youngsters like William Gallas, Peter Luccin, Jacques “Pancho” Abardonado and you had a serious contender for the championship.

We had a fresh new contract with Adidas, a special aniversary crest and some shiny-ass uniforms that are still some of illest this league has ever seen. Those jerseys are just a must have for each and any die-hard.
Our coach was Rolland Courbis who is the man who brought Bordeaux to the final of the UEFA Cup in 96 and will do the same exact feat with us at the end of this season. Oh and he’s responsible for coming up with the nickname “Zizou“.

On this day nine years ago, Marseille was about to receive Montpellier for the third round of the championnat. Marseille didn’t have the best of starts footballistically speaking but still managed to win their first two confrontations against Nantes and Metz on skills alone and personal feats and when the two teams enter the pitch, we are far from imagining what was going to happen.

For the first 34 minutes of this game, we’re off to a rough start and there’s only one team playing, Montpellier. Built on a very nice (although improbable given the personalities and egos of some of those players) concoction of experience and youth, Montpellier showed a lot of promise during that preseason. Led by their very talented left winger Laurent Robert, Montpellier didn’t show any fear and started attacking our goal as if Marseille was Ajaccio. Never mind the 60.000 people screaming on the top of their lungs in the most intimidating of arenas in France. In the span of 8 minutes, between the 14th and 22nd minutes, Montpellier will score three times. Ibrahima Bakayoko, Laurent Robert and ex-Marseille captain Franck Sauzée crucify Stéphane Porato for his first game as a starter in first division. The final nail in the coffin comes with Bakayoko scoring the fourth goal after an incredibly accurate pass from maverick Xavier Gravelaine (given that he used his notoriously less stellar right foot) at the 34th minute and enough lucidity to ensure Porato doesn’t touchthe ball yet. Everybody is convinced the game is over when Marseille touches the bar twice and gets a goal refused for a flagrant offside by Fabrizio Ravanelli. The two teams went back to the locker rooms accompanied with the nicest soundtrack of all, the “bronca”. Le Vélodrome was not pleased and it showed.

4-0 at half time and there were no signs of that changing coming back from the showers. Marseille and all their stars had just been humiliated by a team that was gonna try their hardest not to go back to second division while marseille wanted the title and nothing else. Even the most dedicated fans were ashamed and could not see this uninspired team stand up to some other heavyweights of the league.
That is until Christophe Dugarry comes in. His entrance will definitly put that boost on our right side. As soon as he comes in, he takes over for Daniel Bravo and just gives us some balance and the equivalent of Titi Camara’s power plus some more skills which meant more options for our midfielders. At the 62nd minute, on a long cross from “the President” Laurent Blanc, Dugarry controls and perfectly gives it to Floriant Maurice who scores his first goal as a marseillais with a raging header. Two minutes after that, on a Robert Pirès free-kick, Christophe Dugarry and Laurent Blanc dominate the air and he manages to find Bruno Martini’s net for the second time in as many attempts. A series of corners will follow and Montpellier’s defense seems a lot less focused than it was during the first half.

At the 71st minute, on a Titi Camara kicked corner, Christophe Dugarry scores the exact same header he made for France just three months before for France’s first game of the 1998 World Cup in the same exact stadium. And the Vélodrome just stood up as one, litterally pushing its team to inimaginable heights. The equalizer will come on the remake of another famous goal. The France-Paraguay Golden Goal scored at the time by Laurent Blanc on a David Trézeguet pass. This time Pirès is still at the origin of the play, in lieue of Trézeguet put “Penna Bianca” Ravanelli who brilliantly gives it to Laurent Blanc’s stand-in Eric Roy and Marseille comes back to 4-4 in a little over 22 minutes with a formidable kicker. Belive it or not but at that time, after three games played, Eric Roy had scored two goals and made an assist.

Back to the action. After the fourth goal of the 85th minute, all hell broke loose in the stadium and marseillais fans were just asking for “the kill” now. It was obvious Marseille had the means to just take the victory home and that will happen after Robert Pirès gets fouled inside the penalty area by his old teammate at Metz Cyril Serredszum. Laurent Blanc was given the heavy charge of kicking the penalty at the 92nd minute. He didn’t shake and crucified his childhood friend and ex-Auxerre teammate Bruno Martini. After that, no one remembers. All we remember are scenes of joy, and mayhem. People sticking around to take it all in. All of them knowing they had just witnessed something special, something they’ll live to tell the story of. One of the best games of my lifetime.

Marseille gave us another match of reference for the rest of our lives. Incidently, The centennial season could have been one of the greatest of our history. We followed that game by being practically undefeated in all competitions for the rest of 98. We managed to make it to the final of the UEFA Cup and lost to Parma (or rather to Hernan Crespo)3-0 with no less than 4 suspended starters and on the national scene, Paris lost on purpose to Bordeaux on the last day of the championnat just to spite us. They took a goal in one of the most ridiculous ways ever at the second to last minute after having dominated anj exhausted Girondins squad. We finished second, one point behind Bordeaux and the Paris fans stayed in the Parc des princes to chant “Marseille, Marseille, on t’enc***”. They gave us some more reasons to hate them…

All that nonsense aside though, the Marseille-Montpellier game is the epitomy of the french saying that goes “anything can happen at the Vélodrome”. This game gave birth to so many chants such as the now legendary “Et voila ce que c’est, et voila ce que c’est, et voila ce que c’est d’être marseillais” (”this is what it is to be marseillais) which comes out everytime something crazy is accomplished by our team.
But enough with the talking, here is a video resumé of that cherished moment of ours.

The commentary’s in french, by Jean-Charles Sabatier and legendary french coach Michel Hidalgo. Ex-Marseille Goalkeeper Gaëtan Huard also weighs in from time to time and interviews players and coaches. OMediatheque ripped this a few years back. Thanks to them