Key events
30 min: Some other goals to update you on.
In Marseille/Brighton’s group:
AEK Athens 0-1 Ajax
In Aris Limassol/Rangers’ group:
Real Betis 1-1 Slavia Prague
27 min: “Aris Limasol get best away days in Europa,” emails Martin Utley. “Glasgow, Seville, Prague – that is some trio of cities no?”
For RANGE, that is hard to beat.
Penalty given to Brighton via VAR! Penalty rescinded!
24 min: What on earth is going on? The referee is called over to the screen to look at at incident where Balerdi appeared to handle inside thee Marseille area. The referee gives the penalty after consulting the screen. But then, after a few moments, play restarts! The TNT commentary team are talking about the VAR finding a foul before the handball, apparently Jan Paul van Hecke was penalised for climbing over his marker.
This is just so baffling. VAR is a mess at the moment (get rid, please).
22 min: A nasty knock for West Ham’s Konstantinos Mavropanos, who got a real blow to the head from his teammate Álvarez. Mavropanos is down, and has a bloody mouth, but is going to continue. I hope they have done all the concussion checks properly. That was … ouch.
GOAL! Marseille 2-0 Brighton (Veretout 20)
Marseille double their lead, and just one minute and 28 seconds between the two goals! It’s almost a carbon-copy of the first, with a mistake from Lewis Dunk (on his European debut) allowing Harit to break free. The Moroccan sped down the right, cut the ball back, and this time it’s Veretout who is there around the penalty spot to apply a first-time finish! Steele could have done a bit better in goal there.
GOAL! Marseille 1-0 Brighton (Mbemba 18)
Brighton are behind! Clauss, surely one of the best right backs in Europe, plays a neat one-two, gets to the byline and plays a low cross into the area. Mbemba, the former Newcastle defender, finds some space and sweeps home from 12 yards. The Stade Vélodrome erupts. It is SO loud in there.
16 min: Another Beatles email, from Mark Crowder. “Ringo gets stick (oof) because he’s always mentioned next to John and Paul, which is perhaps, maybe(?) like saying Nunez is a “flop” because he’s not Haaland.”
14 min: West Ham are all over Freiburg! The visitors have hit the post, with Atubolu again looking nervy in goal, and Paqueta has just had another effort effort ruled out (correctly) for offside! It remains Freiburg 0-1 West Ham.
GOAL! Aris Limassol 1-0 Rangers (Moucketou-Moussounda 9)
Rangers are behind due to a header from Alex Moucketou-Moussounda! The Cypriot club climb above the Scottish giants in the group standings with that goal. Not looking great for the team led (on an interim basis) by Steven Davis.
GOAL! Freiburg 0-1 West Ham (Paqueta 8)
The Hammers are at it again! What a header from Paqueta to give them the lead in Germany! Bowen gets free down the right, swings in a pinpoint cross to the penalty spot, and Paqueta rises highest, planting a brilliant header to Atubolu’s right. Brilliant!
6 min: An email from Tom Aldous.
“Responding to your question about better European tournament groups for away days, the Champions League this season has:
– San Sebastian, Milan, Lisbon and Salzburg
– Madrid, Naples, Braga, Berlin
Both I’d say measure up well to Brighton, Marseille, Amsterdam and Athens”.
2 min: Marseille manager Gattuso is already hopping around on the touchline. He has failed to convince anyone about being as elite a manager as he was a player. OM have not won since August and lost 4-0 in Le Classique last month.
This is worth a read, written shortly before Gattuso was appointed.
Peeeeeeeeeep! We’re underway in the early kick-offs. Hope Ed and Stephanie make it to the Vélodrome OK!
Fan issues before Marseille v Brighton
Our man on the ground, Ed Aarons, is reporting issues in Marseille.
Lots of Brighton fans struggling to get to the Stade Velodrome tonight due to massive traffic issues in Marseille. Even special buses chartered by chairman Tony Bloom from airport due to a flight delay could potentially miss kick off https://t.co/hS9oyefHAp
— Ed Aarons (@ed_aarons) October 5, 2023
Another person of this parish (and die-hard Brighton fan), Stephanie Fincham, is also in the south of France. She has messaged me to say:
I’m at Marseille on police escorted fan coach to ground (no other way of getting here apparently). Still 30mins away. Chaos. Not enough buses. So upsetting.
We went to fanzine as instructed in a million emails but just not enough buses
I knew I would get pelters about this. And Mark Hooper is the first to set me straight on email.
“I agree about the Championship, but the analogy doesn’t stack up because Ringo was phenomenal, every half-arsed indie band of the 90s tried and failed to ape his lazy, behind-the-beat, leftie-on-a-right-hand-kit style – and if you listen to the outro of Strawberry Fields, he also invented drum n bass.”
Not sure I agree with the drum ‘n’ bass analogy, but Ringo certainly doesn’t deserve the slander, which Ben Cardew explains nicely here.
While we’re on the subject of Marseille v Brighton, here a couple of preview pieces from Ed Aarons, the lucky so and so.
Ndiaye was at Boreham Wood in 2019. Now he’s a £20m player, back at one of his youth teams in the Europa League. Madness.
Here’s a challenge, can anyone point me in the direction of a better set of group stage away days than Brighton’s Europa League fixtures: Marseille, Ajax, Athens.
Marseille, what a city.
Team news (selected games)
Marseille v Brighton
Marseille: Pau Lopez, Clauss, Mbemba, Balerdi, Murillo, Rongier, Veretout, Ndiaye, Harit, Correa, Aubameyang.
Subs: Ngapandouetnbu, Ounahi, Vitor Oliveira, Renan Lodi, Meite, Sarr, Nadir, Blanco, Soglo, Tunkadi, Caprice.
Brighton: Steele, Lamptey, van Hecke, Dunk, Veltman, Dahoud, Gross, March, Mitoma, Fati, Welbeck.
Subs: Verbruggen, Igor, Webster, Joao Pedro, Gilmour, Baleba, Adingra, Ferguson, McGill, Buonanotte, Hinshelwood.
Aris Limassol v Rangers
Aris Limassol: Vana, Boakye, Yago, Mouketou-Moussounda, Urosevic, Szoke, Struski, Mayambela, Gomis, Bengtsson, Babicka.
Subs: Brown, Kokorin, Spoljaric, Stepinski, Dimitriou, Brorsson, Montnor, Chrysostomou, Ellinas Sofroniou.
Rangers: Butland, Goldson, Tavernier, Davies, Barisic, Lammers, Raskin, Lundstram, Scott Wright, Sima, Dessers.
Subs: Souttar, Cifuentes, Sterling, Roofe, McCrorie, Kieran Wright, King, Devine, Lyall, McKinnon, McCausland, Fraser.
Freiburg v West Ham
Freiburg: Atubolu, Sildialli, Ginter, Lienhart, Sallai, Eggestein, Hofler, Kubler, Adamu, Holer, Grifo.
Subs: Schmidt, Gulde, Weisshaupt, Muller, Philipp, Uphoff, Makengo, Rohl,
Rudlin, Doan, Breunig.
West Ham: Fabianski, Mavropanos, Alvarez, Kehrer, Coufal, Ward-Prowse, Lucas Paqueta, Fornals, Aguerd, Bowen, Kudus.
Subs: Zouma, Cornet, Ings, Ogbonna, Benrahma, Areola, Soucek, Coventry, Emerson Palmieri, Mubama, Anang.
Sporting v Atalanta
Sporting: Adan, Diomande, Inacio, Matheus Reis, Fresneda, Hjulmand, Morita, Nuno Santos, Goncalves, Gyokeres, Paulinho.
Subs: Coates, Edwards, Israel, Neto, Essugo, Catamo, Braganca, Ricardo Esgaio, Quaresma, Duarte Ribeiro, Pinto, Ferreira.
Atalanta: Musso, Scalvini, Djimsiti, Kolasinac, Zappacosta, De Roon, Ederson Silva, Ruggeri, Koopmeiners, De Ketelaere, Lookman.
Subs: Toloi, Holm, Palomino, Pasalic, Muriel, Bakker, Adopo, Carnesecchi, Rossi, Hateboer, Miranchuk, Scamacca.
Preamble
There was once a story of how John Lennon was asked if Ringo Starr was “the best drummer in the world”.
Lennon’s answer, the story went, was: “Ringo wasn’t the best drummer in the world. Let’s face it, he wasn’t even the best drummer in The Beatles”.
That story (now debunked as a joke from a BBC comedy show) was not actually true but does come to mind whenever somebody bangs on about the Premier League being the Best League in the World™ when in fact it’s not even the best league in England. That title, unofficially of course, belongs to the Championship – a division where anything can happen and quite often does.
All of this is a long-winded way of saying that the Europa League is, IMHO, a more interesting competition that the Champions League. We got there in the end.
Just look at the opening round of this year’s Europa League. AEK Athens beating modern football’s team du jour, Brighton, 3-2 at home? Yes, please. Give me a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang brace in Marseille’s 3-3 draw at Ajax over the latest Manchester City group-stage win any day. Freiburg’s sealing a thrilling late win to beat Olympiakos 3-2? ‘Ambassador, with these [results’] you are really spoiling us’.
Anyway, here are tonight’s offerings. It’s quite the line-up. I will be taking you through the 5.45pm BST kick-offs. Join me.
