Olympique de Marseille coach Igor Tudor was upbeat despite his side's going down 2-1 away to Frankfurt on UEFA Champions League Matchday 5, the Croat focusing on the positives and next week's decisive final group-stage clash with Tottenham.
In an incredibly tight Group D, Marseille are still in with a chance of reaching the knockout rounds despite having fallen 2-1 to Frankfurt in Germany on Matchday 5. After conceding an early opener to Daichi Kamada (3') and then seeing former Nantes striker Randal Kolo Muani (27') dance through their defence to cancel out Mattéo Guendouzi's superb volley (22'), Marseille pushed but couldn't find a leveller.
'A lot of positives'
"We should have scored the goal," said Tudor. "I think we played a good game, but not enough to win. The players gave a lot, and I saw a lot of positives, but I didn't like the way we didn't have the defensive edge at the beginning. That's why we conceded the two goals. We didn't approach the game mentally as we should have. But after that, we ran a lot and we did everything we could to reverse the situation. But it wasn't enough."
Nonetheless, the defeat wasn't of the sort to inspire self doubt. Rather, according to Tudor, his side deserve to beat the Londoners of Tottenham next week - which, depending on the result of Sporting vs Frankfurt, would see OM qualify for the round of 16.
'We are good enough'
"We have this final in six days, so we must not get too much into our heads," tempered Tudor. "It will be the match of the year. For the fans, it will be beautiful. Considering how we have played so far, we deserve to win. We are good enough to do it. We were brave, we can be proud. The way we pushed all those teams around makes me proud. The players should be too."
Marseille's next outing is the Ligue 1 Uber Eats Round 13 trip to take on Strasbourg.
