The French hoped that the sacking of Gennaro Gattuso would benefit Marseille, which is in a protracted crisis, and this plan worked. Despite the successful game and the good result, many are calling for no global conclusions to be drawn after this game for several reasons.
Firstly, Shakhtar made a lot of mistakes at their own goal, which will not happen in a match against a stronger opponent. Secondly, after a coaching change, the first 1-2 games are almost always successful, but this effect does not necessarily last for a long period. Thirdly, this is only one successful game so far against a backdrop of poor results.
The French are also dissatisfied with the work of the refereeing team, which did not give "obvious penalties" to Shakhtar, and ridiculed Georgy Sudakov's clause (150 million euros), which Fabrizio Romano talked about.
Serges: When a team has a real coach, they start playing good football. Gattuso was an absolutely useless person in every sense. He should not have been invited to Marseille at all, he failed everywhere, in all the teams he worked for. And he almost led our club to the fight for survival.
Compere: "Marseille has long needed to hire a systematic coach who can not only shout at training sessions and beat players, but can also manage the team and teach them some tactical innovations. As badly as we played against Shakhtar with Gattuso, we played so well against the Ukrainians today.
Souverain: It would have been a shame not to get past Shakhtar. "Marseille are much stronger in every sense. But as long as Gattuso was in the team, all our advantages turned into disadvantages. Now everything has changed for the better and we have proved our undeniable superiority on the pitch.
Afort: It was surprisingly easy. The whole match was easy for Marseille. Even after the conceded goal, it was clear that it was more of a fluke that the Ukrainians would not be able to hold on to their lead and win.
Somma: Let's not jump to conclusions. I was the first to write here that Marseille should not be buried after the draw in Hamburg. Therefore, I have every right to say that now we should not talk about winning the Europa League. Many people have already forgotten how we played just a few days ago. Now the team is inspired by Gattuso's dismissal, but the first effect will pass quickly. And then we will see the real work of the new coach.
Daishikan: After this match, I have only one question - how did this Shakhtar team manage to beat Barcelona and take third place in the group? I didn't follow them in the Champions League, but today's game showed that Shakhtar are one of the weakest clubs at this stage.
Beni: "Shakhtar don't really have any strong players. Today it was particularly noticeable. I liked the little Brazilian on their left wing. Eginaldo, I think, or something like that. Others played poorly, especially in defence. It's strange that we didn't beat them in the first match.
Karim: Ukrainians should thank the referee for adding intrigue to the match and giving us a penalty. It's not even about whether there was a violation or not. If you give such penalties, then you have to give them for the kind of violations that the Ukrainians committed in their penalty area. There was definitely no logic in the referee's actions.
Delphine: The score could have been 4-1 or even 6-2. The Ukrainians had one really good opportunity, we had 2-3. Plus the two penalties that the referee was supposed to give, but for some reason didn't, even after the VAR check.
Boudet: With all due respect to the work of the new coaching staff and the good performance of our players, I would note a surprisingly large number of mistakes made by the Ukrainians even in their own penalty area. Yes, Marseille played much better today than last week, but if Shakhtar had a stronger team, I'm not sure we would have won.
Mballa: Shakhtar looked helpless today. Even after scoring a goal, they didn't gain confidence in their abilities. "Marseille played very strongly, not allowing the Ukrainians to seize the initiative.
Alban: I understand that Aubameyang is now the Europa League's record goalscorer? At 34 years old, he is playing much better than most young and talented forwards for whom clubs ask for tens or even hundreds of millions of euros. We are lucky to have such an outstanding player playing for Marseille.
Saintil: Where is your star for 150 million euros? Even Fabrizio Romano wrote about this "incredible guy", who made one useful action in two matches - he scored a goal from the penalty spot. "Does Shakhtar really want 150 million euros for him? Then we should be asking at least 200 million for Aubameyang, with a discount for his advanced age.
Damien: If not for the referee, Marseille would have destroyed Shakhtar! I saw at least two episodes when the referee should have given a penalty to the Ukrainians. And two Shakhtar players could have received second cautions and left the pitch early. The referee was a little bit sympathetic to the Ukrainians, but that didn't stop us from winning confidently.
Anton PROKOPOV
