On Thursday, as part of the 2025 Champions Trophy, Paris Saint-Germain faced Olympique de Marseille in Kuwait. Medhi Benatia, Marseille’s director of football, stopped in the mixed zone after PSG’s penalty shootout victory (2-2, then 4-1 on penalties). He was torn between pride and frustration.
Benatia: “You don’t play like that against PSG if you don’t have a great team and a great coach.”
“I feel a lot of pride for the players and the coach. For me, it’s no coincidence. You don’t play like that against PSG if you don’t have a great team and a great coach. Paris is the best team in Europe, we’re not going to take that away from them. We lacked a bit of luck; we had a lot of chances in the first half. It had been a long time since (Lucas) Chevalier had been so decisive.”
Benatia: “We could also have been more ruthless, more cunning at the end.”
“We could also have been more ruthless, more cunning at the end, even scored the third goal. For the past year and a half, we’ve often had positive results, but we haven’t always seen the style of play the coach wants.” This evening (Thursday), in terms of play and performance, we saw a very good team on the pitch that always tried to find a solution. I leave this match disgusted, disappointed, but with a lot of ambition for the future,” said a source quoted by L’Equipe.
Obviously, the Marseille players can be frustrated, having been just moments away from a trophy. A trophy that, moreover, would have been won against their arch-rivals after a strong performance. There were some missed opportunities, but also several very good spells. This only adds to the disappointment.
OM will need to capitalize on the positives to achieve more consistency and learn from them in order to take the next step. It’s worth noting that PSG is still showing signs of fatigue, which was evident in their pressing and some duels, but that’s not the whole story. Marseille was a good opponent.
However, they were ultimately outclassed in key areas, such as managing the game when they were leading at the end. Or, efficiency, with a devilish Paris side in the final moments of the match. Marseille’s mission must be to digest this and display the same energy in matches against less “attractive” opponents. Meanwhile, Paris has seen that there is still work to be done to return to full form. Even if the foundation remains solid, since the title has been won.
