DISPLAY OF EXCELLENCE

Importance of the match

With Liverpool and Athletico Madrid having established themselves as the leaders of Group D, the fifth match day of the group stage was decisive for both Marseille and PSV Eindhoven, as to whether they would have any chance at all of qualifying for the knockout rounds, or be dropped to the UEFA cup instead. For Liverpool, the significance was primarily whether they or Athletico Madrid would be group leaders at the end of the day, getting a better seeding for the knockout stages.

Nature of the match

Despite being a match where Marseille had everything to play for, the play rarely seemed ugly, and the players tended to be pretty well behaved. Except for one single incident, there was never much pressure on the referee and his authority largely went unquestioned.

Overall performance

Benqueren