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Mac Allister goes close!
18 min: It’s an ugly bit of play with so nearly a beautiful end result for Liverpool, as Mac Allister wriggles away from two Marseille markers and drags a shot just a yard wide of Rulli’s right-hand post. I’m not sure the Argentina international would have got there if it had been on target. That is the closest either side have come.
16 min: Liverpool are beginning to turn the screw with their phases of play, probing with Salah and Ekitike. The French striker nods a cross back across goal but there is nobody in red to challenge at the back post.
14 min: Twice that Pavard, one of three Marseille centre-backs, has made a run from deep into Liverpool territory. Traore nearly picks out the France international with a sly through ball, but Kerkez and Alisson just about to enough to shepherd the ball to safety.
12 min: “Sending my best wishes to Ibrahima Konaté,” emails Morgan Blake. “Sending my best hard stare towards Richard Hughes and those lads for not having brought in a senior centre back.”
I imagine Marc Guéhi is watching this from a sofa in Manchester. Bizarre that Liverpool did not rival City for him, when the price was £20m. Maybe they are waiting for Giovanni Leoni to return from injury, but that is a big risk.
10 min: A quietish start to this game, despite the atmosphere, but bums rise off seats as Greenwood jets down the right wing for the first time. The former Manchester United man has had his troubles in the past but the 24-year-old has been on sensational form in the last couple of seasons and has a real swagger about him as he puts in a dangerous low cross, cleared by Van Dijk.
8 min: Reports are filtering through that Federico Chiesa has injured himself in the warm-up, so he won’t be available for Slot off the Liverpool bench tonight.
6 min: Liverpool corner and there is an almighty barrage of whistles from the home fans, who seem determined to put the visitors off. The corner is delivered, Gomez rises highest, but the referee adds his own whistle for an infringement.
4 min: I should mention that there was a minute’s applause pre-match for Rolland Courbis, Marseille-born who both played and managed the club. The 72-year-old died on 12 January. Both sides are wearing black armbands.
2 min: Liverpool have started so well, and space opens up for Gravenberch to take a shot on the edge of Marseille’s area. The Dutchman instead chooses to offload to Wirtz but Hojbjerg is there, snapping into a challenge and clearing the danger.
Peeeeeeeep!
It’s deafening as the game kick-offs off. Marseille in all white with a blue trim, Liverpool in all red.
The players are out. It’s an absolutely clamorous atmosphere in Marseille as the players make their way out on the pitch. The home fans unfurl a brilliant tifo of the Beatles reading Le Provençal, the local newspaper here.
Those two early Champions League matches are over. It finished Galatasaray 1-1 Atlético and Qarabag 3-2 Eintracht Frankfurt!
With that win (and previous victories over Benfica, Copenhagen and a brilliant draw with Chelsea), Qarabag are now 17th and the Azerbaijani side have a real chance of making the play-offs!
Arne Slot speaks to the TNT cameras pitchside:
It’s not the first time we play in a hostile stadium. We played at Galatasaray. It’s a great stadium [here], great atmosphere.
The moments where I didn’t play him, we were struggling and I tried something else. We have steadied the ship now but we miss goals from all the ball possession and chances that we have. Salah is one of the players that can score a goal.
Joe Gomez is in at centre back for Liverpool alongside Virgil van Dijk, with Ibrahima Konaté absent due to “family matters”.
First of all, it’s really sad that Ibrahima can’t be here. But Joe is a good replacement but he has not played a lot since I have been here. But he has shown he can be a really good player for us.
Djibril Cissé, Lord of Frodsham and a former player of both these sides, is also at the Vélodrome. The Frenchman, now 44, is looking sharp.
Another huge talent that Marseille will add to their squad in the coming days is Arsenal’s Ethan Nwaneri, who has struggled for minutes this season. The wonderkid will join the French side on loan until the end of the season.
Nwaneri has played 165 minutes in the Premier League, having excelled in his breakthrough campaign, when he scored nine goals in all competitions. He has not appeared in the league since the end of November, when he came on in the north London derby.
Arsenal were initially reluctant to allow him to leave given they are still in four competitions but it is understood they have recognised Nwaneri needs game time. Crystal Palace and West Ham were believed to have also shown interest in a loan.
The French side are to pay a loan fee but there will be no option to make his move permanent at the end of the season, with Nwaneri considered one of Arsenal’s brightest talents. He signed a new five-year deal in August after strong interest from Chelsea and Borussia Dortmund.
Manager apparel watch: I’m delighted to report that De Zerbi is wearing a snow-white turtle neck under a blazer, while Arne Slot has opted to dress down tonight in a club tracksuit.
The teams! Salah starts for Liverpool!
Marseille: Rulli, Pavard, Balerdi, Medina, Murillo, Hojbjerg, Kondogbia, Weah, Greenwood, Traore, Gouiri.
Subs: de Lange, Van Neck, Egan-Riley, Gomes, Bakola, Mmadi, Doubal, Vermeeren, Nadir, Aubameyang, O’Riley, Igor Paixao.
Liverpool: Alisson, Frimpong, Gomez, Van Dijk, Kerkez, Gravenberch, Mac Allister, Salah, Szoboszlai, Wirtz, Ekitike.
Subs: Mamardashvili, Woodman, Endo, Chiesa, Jones, Gakpo, Robertson, Nyoni, Ngumoha.
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia)
Marseille v Liverpool is one of seven 8pm (GMT) kick-offs in the Champions League. Luke McLaughlin will cover the other six matches in our clockwatch, which you can find here.
There are two early kick-offs: Galatasaray v Atlético and Qarabag v Eintracht Frankfurt. Both matches are currently into the second half and both have a live scoreline of 1-1.
As for Liverpool, this is obviously a mammoth game for Arne Slot and co. Out of the Premier League title race, European competition has become even more important than usual as the club try to recover last season’s form.
Slot has been under pressure this season, and will not have welcomed the news of Xabi Alonso’s dismissal at Real Madrid with the former Liverpool midfielder one of the managers touted as a potential successor at Anfield. That all seems unlikely in the short term at least, but failure to qualify for the knockout rounds – by finishing outside the top eight and losing the playoff – could seal Slot’s fate.
The good news for Slot and Liverpool is that Mo Salah is back. Salah trained with Liverpool on Tuesday for the first time since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations and Slot has said the Egyptian is in line for an immediate return to the Liverpool team at Marseille.
“There has been one moment in the season where I decided not to play Mo and one moment where I decided not to take him to the game [the win at Inter that followed Salah’s explosive interview].” said Slot in the lead up to this game. “There’s never been an issue for me, and the first time he’s able to be in the squad again, he is. Let’s see the lineup tomorrow if you still think there’s an issue.”
I wrote a little bit about that fight between Rabiot and Rowe earlier in the season, with both players now in Serie A.
We’ll have the team news and starting XIs shortly but Marseille’s squad is absolutely fascinating. The city has always been a place of eccentric chaos and it feels like this team is an extension of that, with players as varied as Matt O’Riley (on loan from Brighton), Benjamin Pavard (on loan from Inter), rising star Igor Paixão, Timothy Weah (now apparently a right back), English players Angel Gomes (signed on a free transfer), CJ Egan-Riley (signed from Burnley), top scorer Mason Greenwood, veterans Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Neil Maupay, Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, Geronimo Rulli, and Geoffrey Kondogbia.
To give you some context, Marseille started the season with two of their best players scrapping in the dressing room – Adrien Rabiot and Jonathan Rowe both left the club in disgrace shortly afterwards – while their last four results have been as varied as a 2-0 home defeat to Nantes, a 2-2 draw with PSG (PSG winning on penalties), a 9-0 win in the French Cup and a 5-2 victory over Angers at the weekend in Ligue 1. Tonight, they host Liverpool and on Saturday play Ligue 1 leaders Lens. It’s never boring in Marseille.
Please enjoy George Boxall’s preview, which explains a little more.
Preamble
Marseille away is an absolute doozy. Drinking in the Old Port, maybe taking a day trip to out to the calanques, weaving through the streets of Noailles, soaking up heady mix of north African and French vibes, the place is absolutely electric. Oh, to be a Liverpool supporter on tour right now.
Great city, great club and a fascinating current team and manager. Roberto De Zerbi, the former Brighton manager, has turned Marseille into outside title contenders domestically and a European force again. With two matches remaining in the league phase, both Marseille and Liverpool sit just outside the automatic qualification to the knockout rounds. A win here is absolutely essential to both sides chasing a spot in the top eight. Anything other than a win here and either side will most likely have to settle with a playoff spot.
There’s a lot to enjoy and a lot on the line. Let’s get it.
Kick-off: 8pm GMT.
