Arsenal loanees William Saliba and Matteo Guendouzi were both on the pitch as OGC Nice fans invaded during their match against Marseille on Sunday.
William Saliba and Matteo Guendouzi were both in the starting lineup for Marseille on Sunday night away to OGC Nice, and putting in decent performances despite a 1-0 deficit with around 74 minutes on the clock. Then the contest fell apart.
Marseille’s Dimitri Payet was hit by a bottle thrown by the Nice fans, and he responded by throwing a couple of them back into the crowd. The fans in turn rushed onto the pitch to confront him and a brawl ensued.
Crazy scenes in Ligue 1 😱
Dimitri Payet was hit by a missile thrown from the crowd, and when he threw it back it all kicked off…
The match was suspended as chaos descended on the pitch, with the managers even getting involved! pic.twitter.com/Skk7VoLoIa
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The players all left the pitch, before Ligue 1 officials made the surprising decision to continue the game.
Nice (who were winning and at little risk from their own supporters) were happy to continue, Marseille (who were losing and being physically assaulted) were not. That part wasn’t so surprising.
That led to a rather silly situation where the Nice players took their positions to defend a corner that no one was taking. When it became clear the Marseille players weren’t about to sprint back out onto the pitch, the match was abandoned.
“Our players were attacked,” said Marseille president Pablo Longoria.
“The league wanted the match to restart. We decided for the safety of our players, who were attacked during the pitch invasion, not to resume because the safety of our players was not guaranteed.
“The referee was with us, he confirmed to Jorge Sampaoli and me that safety was not guaranteed and decided to stop the game.”