‘Have to talk about it’ – Marseille ace highlights one weakness Liverpool could exploit tomorrow
Marseille midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg has implored his team to address one repeated weakness that Liverpool could seek to exploit at the Stade Velodrome on Wednesday night.
A Reds squad boosted by the return of Mo Salah from the Africa Cup of Nations will fly to France later today ahead of the Champions League fixture, and a win would set up Arne Slot’s side very nicely to qualify directly for the round of 16.
The Premier League champions have won their last two European away matches, thrashing Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 in October and beating Inter Milan 1-0 at San Siro last month, although tomorrow’s opponents have lost just twice at home all season.
Hojbjerg laments costly late lapses from Marseille
Hojbjerg partook in his club’s pre-match press conference on Tuesday, and he was asked about the team’s tendency to concede goals late on in games, with a few of those instances altering the result.
The Danish midfielder replied (via Marseille’s official website): “We have to talk about it, tell ourselves that matches are played until the end. The important thing is to do things until the end. We have to repeat it every day. We’ve wasted points this season because of that.”
Marseille have lost a lot of points late in matches this season
Roberto De Zerbi’s side recently lost the Trophée des Champions (French equivalent of the Community Shield) on penalties to Paris Saint-Germain, having been on the cusp of victory before Goncalo Ramos’ 95th-minute equaliser, and conceding late goals has indeed been a recurring habit for Marseille this season.
Indeed, they’ve let in result-changing goals in the 81st minute or later in no fewer than eight matches in the current campaign, and they also conceded in stoppage time against Angers last weekend, although that was in a 5-2 win.
| Opponent | Competition | Final score | Time of decisive goal |
| Rennes | Ligue 1 | 1-0 | 90+1 |
| Lyon | Ligue 1 | 1-0 | 87 |
| Real Madrid | Champions League | 2-1 | 81 |
| Sporting Lisbon | Champions League | 2-1 | 86 |
| Angers | Ligue 1 | 2-2 | 90+6 |
| Atalanta | Champions League | 0-1 | 89 |
| Toulouse | Ligue 1 | 2-2 | 90+2 |
| PSG | Trophée des Champions | 2-2 (4-1 pens) | 90+5 |
Liverpool have also been guilty of conceding decisive late goals this season, losing in stoppage time away to Crystal Palace and Chelsea and giving up last-gasp equalisers to Leeds and Fulham, so it’s a harmful habit which has afflicted both teams who’ll be playing at the Stade Velodrome on Wednesday.
Conversely, the Reds had a knack for scoring late winners at the start of the campaign, having done so against Bournemouth, Newcastle, Burnley and Atletico Madrid, and they repeated the trick away to Inter six weeks ago.
Ten of our last 11 matches have either been drawn or won by a one-goal margin, so there’s a strong likelihood that the game could be firmly in the balance going into stoppage time tomorrow night.
If Marseille are hanging on to a narrow lead or for a draw, Liverpool must be buoyed by their opponents’ tendency to crack late on and add their name to the table above. Of course, the nervous system would much prefer a repeat of our 4-0 win at this stadium in December 2007!
You can watch footage of Liverpool’s pre-Marseille training session below, via Empire of the Kop on YouTube:
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