Several dozen, largely. Especially families with children. And if there was no worse program for the average Marseillais than Paris Saint-Germain qualifying for the Champions League quarter-finals, they would surely have been hundreds to choose the comfort of their couch rather than the uncertainty of a pending match.
Nevertheless, a large majority of the 4,545 spectators stayed and they deserved it, as the hockey evening quickly became endless, with only 12 minutes of actual play between 8:50 pm and 10:22 pm. This was due to the poor quality of the ice at POMGE, with the formation of two holes, causing significant delays in the game: first a 45-minute long interruption between the first two periods and then a second period stopped at the 32nd minute. This also caused a panic among local officials, who were informed of the threat looming over them if the ice was simply incapable: the match was postponed to Thursday evening, resuming at 0-0.
28 minutes straight
And what about the hockey in all of this? As if it hadn’t been long enough already, the match went into overtime… Until the second break, the Boxers delivered their most sluggish performance of the series, rarely in control or at the helm, and guilty of letting the Spartiates too easily into the series. When the remainder of the evening was in jeopardy, Olivier Dimet’s men were trailing 3-2.
“In 18 seconds of overtime, Giroux found the opening and chilled the Marseille ice rink.”
Played straight, the last 28 minutes changed the course of the game. Mathieu Pompéri first equalized on his own in a counter-attack (3-3, 39th minute). Then the game balanced out, with no one finding the breakthrough until the end of regulation time, despite two numerical inferiority situations that exposed the Boxers.
If the evening was dreadfully long, the overtime at least had the merit of being express. 18 seconds for Tommy Giroux to find the opening and chill the POMGE. Now in a position of strength, Bordeaux leads 3-0 and has four chances to reach the semi-finals, the first one starting this Wednesday in Marseille. As long as there are no new holes in the ice…
