Bolton Edged Out of UEFA Cup

When Marseilles keeper Fabien Barthes obligingly spilled a routine right flank cross in the 24th minute to allow Stelios Giannakopoulos to nip in and put Bolton 1-0 up, it seemed that the game which Chairman Phil Gartside had described as the biggest in Bolton’s history might end in triumph.

But it was not to be. In first half stoppage time, Franck Ribery headed a dramatic equaliser and in the 67th minute Israeli centre back Tal Ben Haim deflected a brilliant cross past his keeper to complete Bolton’s misery.

The Premiership side fought back and pressed hard but the Marseilles defence held out and in the end it was the passionate French crowd at the Stade Velodrome who went home happy, after a fiercely contested and sometimes bad tempered encounter that was full of aggression and endeavour but disappointingly low on both technical merit and artistic impression.