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Marseille booked themselves a place in round three of the UEFA Cup with a last-gasp 1-0 victory over Heerenveen.
The Mediterranean outfit have played just half of their four matches in Group F, but they are assured of finishing in the top three and can now look forward to continuing their adventure in the competition that provided them with so many emotional nights two seasons ago.
They hardly had things their own way, however, and their Dutch visitors pushed them hard with a solid and determined performance. Nonetheless, it was fit-again Senegalese striker Mamadou Niang who benefited from the game's first chance, when he forced Brian Vandenbussche into tipping his 12th-minute effort around the post after collecting a pass from Wilson Oruma.
Heerenveen were quick to create a danger of their own, though, and it took a smart intervention from Abdoulaye Méïté to prevent the dangerous Georgios Samaras back-heeling the ball into Fabien Barthez's goal. The Dutch outfit had clearly come with attacking intentions, and they continued to look for opportunities to move forward even after unfortunate top-scorer Klaas Huntelaar left the pitch with an injury just half-an-hour into the game.
As the end of the first period approached, the hosts at last stepped up the pressure, with Vandenbussche again denying Niang and Sergio Koke just failing to meet a Taye Taiwo cross, but they had failed to dictate the rhythm of the game as Coach Jean Fernandez had wanted, and looked subdued in the early stages of the second half as well.
Indeed, Samaras found himself one-on-one with Barthez eight minutes after the restart, and the veteran goalkeeper was extremely grateful for a clumsy touch from the Greek striker that allowed him to steal back the ball. At the other end of the pitch, Marseille looked most likely to strike from a set-piece, with both Taiwo and substitute Samir Nasri drawing free-kick saves from Vandenbussche in the space of 120 seconds.
Both sides started taking greater risks as the clock ticked down, but Marseille must have thought it wasn't to be their day when the referee failed to whistle for a clear foul on Niang in the area with five minutes remaining.
Ironically, they were to get their penalty two minutes later for a much less obvious infringement. Andres Mendoza looked to all intents and purposes to have taken a cynical dive in the area, yet Marseille will tell themselves justice was served and young left-back Taiwo stepped up to confidently fire in the dramatic late winner.
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