{"id":2006,"date":"2026-04-27T14:27:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T06:27:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/?p=2006"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:27:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T06:27:59","slug":"marseille-see-champions-league-spot-slip-further-away","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/27\/marseille-see-champions-league-spot-slip-further-away\/","title":{"rendered":"Marseille see Champions League spot slip further away"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1000\" height=\"667\" src=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-22.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2007\" srcset=\"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-22.png 1000w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-22-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-22-768x512.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Marseille saw the prospect of Champions League football slip further away as they were held to a 1-1 draw by Nice at the Velodrome on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Marseille hierarchy hoped a verbal blast from sporting director Medhi Benatia following a pitiful 2-0 defeat to Lorient last weekend would fire the players to a desperately-needed three points to relaunch their bid for a top-four place in Ligue 1.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Captain Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg put them ahead with a diving header in the second half, but Elye Wahi grabbed a point for the visitors with a &#8216;panenka&#8217; penalty in the 88th minute. To rub salt into Marseille&#8217;s wounds, Wahi was one of their high-profile signings in 2024 before leaving the club after just six months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The draw leaves Marseille sixth and staring at a financially damaging failure to qualify for Europe&#8217;s top club competition. The top three teams in France earn Champions League places while the fourth-placed club goes into the qualifying rounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Marseille are four points behind Lyon and Lille, who both have 57 points, and three behind Rennes. Lille secured a hard-fought 1-0 victory away to Paris FC on Sunday to stay firmly in contention for an automatic Champions League place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Belgian forward Matias Fernandez-Pardo converted a 26th-minute penalty after a foul on Romain Perraud, sending former Paris Saint-Germain goalkeeper Kevin Trapp the wrong way with his spot kick. The win puts Lille level on 57 points with third-placed Lyon, who beat Auxerre 3-2 on Saturday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However Lille will rue their narrow victory as they now have the same goal difference as Lyon, but the run-in favours Lille who will face lower-table clubs Le Havre and Auxerre. Lyon, on the other hand, still have to play Rennes, who have their own European aspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elsewhere, Metz staved off relegation for at least another week with an entertaining 4-4 draw away to Le Havre. Gauthier Hein was Metz&#8217;s saviour, scoring in the 85th minute to bring the scores level having earlier netted from the penalty spot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marseille saw the prospect of Champions League football [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2007,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2006","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2006"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2008,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2006\/revisions\/2008"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2007"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2006"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2006"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dxtynews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2006"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}