Olympique de Marseille faces Feyenoord Rotterdam on Thursday in the semi-final of the Europa League Conference. The opportunity for Payet’s teammates to enter the history of the brand new competition. In the end, it’s not so bad, the Europa League Conference… A competition despised when its creation was announced, the C4 finally turned into a goal for Olympique de Marseille when it came to Rotterdam for the semi-final. On the side of the Old Port, the evocation of this exotic competition, with Finnish, Armenian or Gibraltarian teams present in the group stage, aroused polite comments at best, mockery at worst – like everywhere on the continent. For local fans, OM, winner of a Champions League in 1993, at least has its place on the floor above, in the Europa League. But, falling this year in a group with Lazio, Galatasaray, and Lokomotiv Moscow, the Provençal club did not do better than third, and therefore discovered the C4. “We play to go to the end” The “small” European Cup, born 22 years after the disappearance of the Cup Cup (C2), ended up seducing as the competition progressed. As the rounds and successes went by, OM showed that the objective was indeed the title on May 25 in Tirana, to maintain their legend of being “forever the first”, as when they had become the first club French to win the prestigious C1. “We don’t choose the competitions we want to win. I’m saying that this club, this city, these people need to win something,” Marseille coach Jorge Sampaoli said in December. end. (The C4) does not have the prestige of the C1 or the C3, but it is still a European Cup and a trophy to win”, warned goalkeeper Steve Mandanda. Another hot atmosphere in anticipation After the Toumba stadium, the lair of PAOK Salonika, in the quarters, the Marseillais must prepare for a new hot atmosphere, at “De Kuip” (“the basin”, in Dutch). More than 48,000 fans are waiting for them. Built in 1936 and renovated in 1994, De Kuip is a loudspeaker that resonates. The tifos there are often spectacular. The audience sings non-stop. The expression “twelfth man” is not an empty word: no team player will ever wear a number 12 flocked jersey, this one being reserved for the public. But behind this passion which animates the more than 60,000 members of “The Legion” (the name of the assembly of supporters) hides a less rosy reality. A few groups of ultras, mainly the dreaded SCF Hooligans (Sport Club Feyenoord), bring together a few hundred troublemakers, accustomed to acts of vandalism and other fights. Several of them being banned from stadiums in the Netherlands, they s ‘most often illustrate during away matches in European cups, such as in 2015, when they ransacked a district of Rome or in 2019 for similar facts in Basel. In France, fans of the AS Nancy Lorraine still remember the trip to Rotterdam in 2006, when a few dozen supporters caused the interruption of a Europa League match after snatching seats from the Marcel-Picot stadium and provoking the police. season, the club has already been fined ten UEFA fines for a total amount of around 500,000 euros for the behavior of its supporters. , the club is therefore sending a d urgent request to its supporters to prevent Feyenoord from receiving even more fines”, communicated the Rotterdam club. A request far from useless. In the previous round, incidents (ignition of smoke bombs, throwing of projectiles and blocking of stairs) had taken place during the home match against Slavia Prague on 7 April. The OM match had not been calmer. Incidents took place in Marseille between Greek supporters and Marseille fans. Proof if there is one that the “small” European Cup unleashes passions. OM can win everything… or lose OM are used to major continental meetings. It will play its seventh European semi-final in its history on Thursday, a record for a French club. This season, the club can still win everything – a European title and qualification for the Champions League – or lose everything. The Marseillais arrive in the Netherlands on the strength of a very important success in Reims (1-0) , which allowed them to maintain their six-point lead in second place in the Ligue 1 standings, qualifying for the C1. But four days from the end, these six margin lengths on Monaco and Rennes do not guarantee anything. On the ground, Marseille will have some certainties, carried by their series of ten victories in the last eleven matches. But many have been narrow and if OM often have control of the game, as their coach wants, they do not always have a lot of margin or brilliance. “With the way is better, but what matters in these periods, it is to win matches”, captain Steve Mandanda nevertheless recalled after the victory snatched on Sunday in Reims. While he should play his 100th European match with OM in Rotterdam, Mandanda has seen others and knows that if the end of the Marseille season is exciting and full of challenges, it can also end in blood sausage, as in 2017-2018. Rudi Garcia’s OM were then beaten by Atlético Madrid in the Europa League final and, after having been on the podium for a long time, ended up finishing fourth, missing out on the Champions League. Not to be reproduced.