What the f*ck just happened?

By: Magnusson | March 13th, 2008

I needed these 24 hours to watch the match again, to make sure this wasn’t a nightmare, to let the news sink in.
What the fuck just happened to us? Did we just do what everybody warned us aboput? Did we really lose to the same team twice in three years? In the same exact situation? How? How the hell did this happen to us again?
I’ll tell you how. We were arrogant.
This is the first time (correction second if we count the Auxerre game in the Coupe de la Ligue) where we played as if the issue of the match was known. Everybody thought we knew what would be facing us. I mean, the last time I wrote, I was telling myself that 3-0 and 3-1 are two very different scores. No shit, Sherlock! That away goal screwed us big time but even more accurately, we screwed ourselves. By not scoring four or five times at the Vélodrome (this may be the more disappointing, as we should have scored a hundred times more), we made sure our situation was not as comfortable as it could have given the circumstances.
As Inara said sometime ago, last night’s game was a “collective brainfart” and at no point were we looking like we should have gone through. Zenit St. Petersburg played with too much serenity for a team that lost 3-1 in the first leg. They have Villareal’s and now Marseille’s scalp. They won’t win the compettion but they can have an interesting journey.
Add that to the fact that we seemed irresistible and unbeatable, we went back to Russia as tourists. We’ve seen pictures of the players visiting musea, eating at The Ermitage while Advocaat’s people only wanted to score twice and that’s what they got. Pape Diouf is even harsher than I am. The President held a press conference and said, in his own words, how pissed he was:

“Thursday’s match filled me with a feeling of anger. It is clear to me that the players took themselves for nababs and vizirs. In such a situation, I expect them to play a European match, played with guts. Some of the players have forgotten their duties of solidarity towards their teammates. The solution must be collective. Eric Gerets probably shares my feelings. He met with the players upon arrival at the hotel and did not hold back in telling them his way of thinking
The Sunday match at Lens should be a redemption for players who saved themselves in one way or another. It would be a pity for us to lose the benefits of our journey over the past two months, because of a few of our kids who are losing themselves”

Ouch! Pape Diouf is known for his diplomacy and his way with words but this is the raw, unfiltered version of the guy. And he’s giving ammo to the people who started saying out in the open that Samir Nasri has been saving himself for the Euro. Listen I love the kid and I really want him to stay but if we wcompare with his good friend Karim Benzema (who signed a few hours ago the extension JMA has been talking about, making him the best paid player in France with €400.000), you see two different behaviors lately. Samir has not been himself this season and still has not signed a new contract. All that has filtered after Lorik Cana, Mathieu valbuena, Mamadou Niang and Steve Mandanda signed, is that the only Marseillais of the bunch is the one not willing to stay. After last year and Madrid contacts, this could have been understandable but it is clear that he is now playing on status alone and wants to be healthy when Domenech makes his team. He was the worst player on the pitch last night and by far. I hate poitning fingers but I believe Pape Diouf was refering to him when he talks.

Sidebar - I’m not even going to talk about the first goal that was an obvious offside. Once agin, there’s no need to epilogue on this but the offside was so clear I believe the referee will need to explain us how much money Gazprom put in his kid’s piggybank. Look at this picture, it’s not one but two Zenit players who are offside. That’s not an excuse because we played pitiful but still.

Sidebar #2 - Ronald Zubar and Dédé Ayew received Bananas and monkey chants. They talked to the fourth referee and the assistant, but nothing was done. It is time UEFA starts doing something other than penalizing players. I know this would hold a ton more weight had we won, because this just sounds like whining to me but Zubar seemed even more pissed with the bananas than with the defeat. Poor guy. BTW, how do you find bananas in Saint Petersburg in March?

We’re done with our European campaign and hopefully we’ll get back to it with the Lens and Carquefou games to make sure we get eliminated by Zenit St.Petersburg a third time next year in the Champions League.