Twente – Marseille, is it that time again?

By: Magnusson | February 26th, 2009

I don’t want to sound overly pessimistic but for the last few years we’ve always been eliminated too early from European competitions by a team that’s “supposed” to be less glorious than we were. I can’t explain it but if we get Newcastle or some bigger club, I’m optimistic. But make that club obscure and I’m pretty sure we’ll get kicked out. Twente came prepared last time, museling all of our players and obviously did their homework. We, on the other end, didn’t. Our team seemed surprised that Twente, a team that hasn’t lost in their last thirteen games, was going to be a worthy opponent.
Anyway, after losing at home last week, we need to return the favor this afternoon. We will have to bring it to them today and I honestly don’t see that happening.

I’m going to be overly pessimistic and say that we won’t win this one. I’ve re-watched the first game AND the Le Mans game this morning and honestly I don’t see how we could have tried more. It’s just that maybe we lack the quality to go any firther or maybe the player’s hearts are not in it. maybe it’s a little of both, but we basically just need another team tonight.
One of the good news is that Lorik Cana will be fit to play tonight. And that’s it for the good news.
Julien Rodriguez probably won’t play since he hurt himself again, so is Ronald Zubar. Our defense will consist of Renato Civelli and Vittorino Hilton. I am a firm believer in Civelli but he hasn’t played much this season and still hasn’t had a stellar game with us. Tonight could be his night.
Bonnart will take his spot back from Tyrone Mears who showed great promise and motivation in his first game with the club last week. Karim Ziani will play and thus Valbuena won’t. Ben Arfa needs to be starting this at all costs as he lost his spot on the rotation but since Marseille will be trying to showcase him on a European stage to get a better deal whenever they want to be selling the kid, I don’t see him not starting.
The shocker might be that Mamadou Samassa will be starting and Koné won’t. Even though I believe Koné is a much better player, we will need some height on our side (Twente has 6 starters who are over 6′3″) if we want to threaten them on set pieces.
Here is what ou tem might look like:
Mandanda – Bonnart, Civelli, Hilton, Taiwo – Cana (cap.) – Ben Arfa, Ziani, Be. Cheyrou, Niang – Samassa.