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WHAT HAPPENED?
Marseille lost 3-0 at home in Le Classique, French football’s biggest derby, playing 70 minutes with 10 players and trailing by three goals at the break. When the hosts re-emerged for the second half, Greenwood was not among them after a ruthless De Zerbi opted for a double half-time substitution. The Italian implied post-match that the forward played without courage.
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AFPTHE BIGGER PICTURE
Greenwood had made a good start to life in France after completing a permanent transfer to Marseille in July, scoring five times in his first three Ligue 1 appearances. With the team flying as they bid to return to the Champions League next season, the 23-year-old had hardly missed a minute until being hooked early on Sunday. But he’s also only scored once in his last six games since August.
WHAT ROBERTO DE ZERBI SAID
“I didn’t like the way he played,” De Zerbi told reporters when asked why he subbed Greenwood. “If we want to compete for the title we have to push in all matches. He’s a good guy but I expected a lot more from him this evening.”
De Zerbi went on to talk more generally about the team in comments to broadcaster DAZN, but it highlighted further why he didn’t want Greenwood on the pitch in the second half.
“At 11v11, we weren’t up to par,” he said. “We need to make more runs, sacrifices, I told the players. We got a lot of red cards. I don’t want to know if it was fair or not. We weren’t able to do like in Lyon. We didn’t play with courage like my team should play. We had to play with courage, that’s why it was more difficult. We’re going to have to keep working and do more. We need to have more personality and play better. We weren’t able to be competitive. We had prepared well to play with courage. If we don’t play with courage, we can’t wear this jersey.”
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AFPWHAT NEXT?
Marseille sit third in Ligue 1 and now trail leaders PSG by six points. They are back in action on November 3 with a trip to mid-table Nantes, before they host the similarly mediocre Auxerre the following week. Both games will be seen an opportunity to return to winning ways going into the next international break.
