Zidane sorry Marseille eliminated at group stage

Zinedine Zidane, an Olympique Marseille supporter all his life, said he was sorry the club had not reached the last 16 of the Champions League.

Zidane's Real Madrid beat Marseille 2-1 on Wednesday but the French side would have been eliminated whatever the result because of Porto's 2-1 defeat of Partizan Belgrade.

"Marseille cannot have any regrets about this match," said Zidane. "I would have preferred that Marseille had qualified and I am the first to be disappointed."

"It all went wrong against Porto," he added referring to the fact that Marseille lost twice to Porto.

"It went well for Real tonight and we can be happy with how we've done in the tournament until now. We played our game and I think our victory was deserved," said Zidane who last played against Marseille in the 1993/94 season for Girondins Bordeaux.

Marseille coach Alain Perrin said: "This match was worth more than a defeat. You need a bit of luck to beat Real and we didn't have it tonight."

"If we had played like this against Porto, we could have had a different result in this group. We matched them (Real) tonight and the result was purely because of Real's class."