Marseille coach Eric Gerets hopes UEFA Cup elimination will not have an effect on his side's domestic ambitions.

Despite dominating large parts of last night's quarter-final second leg at the Stade Velodrome, OM lost 2-1 to Shakhtar to sink to a 4-1 aggregate defeat.

Their exit from Europe at least allows the Mediterranean side to concentrate on domestic issues, and they head into this weekend a point clear at the Ligue 1 summit with seven rounds of fixtures remaining.

Gerets appreciates, however, that chasing the game against Shakhtar may take its toll, with Lorient next up for OM on Sunday.

"The players were tired at the end, we have seen that from the 70th minute," said the Belgian.

"We will have to look at their physical state for the weekend. From a morale point of view, if we had played badly, I think it could have hurt us.

"But I think everyone realises that we have missed a chance here. I am not saying we were strong enough to go through, but we could at least have won the match."

Marseille were 2-0 down from the first leg but they would have been confident of pegging that deficit back given the way they started last night's match.

However they conceded an unfortunate goal in the 29th minute when Charles Kabore's clearance rebounded off Fernandinho and into the OM net at the near post, past a bemused Steve Mandanda.

Hatem Ben Arfa equalised for the hosts just before half-time and they created a raft of decent opportunities before tiring in the final quarter.

Shakhtar, under the cosh for the majority of the contest, countered in the final seconds and Luiz Adriano nutmegged Mandanda with virtually the last kick of the game to earn his side a win on the night.

"In the championship, you are able to get away with starting one or two matches poorly, even an entire first half," added Gerets.

"Here, the opposite happened. We got into the match straightaway but with a start like this you have to have some luck with one of your shots to open the scoring.

"The Shakhtar goal was like a cold shower for us. They scored the first time they went forward."

OM midfielder Benoit Cheyrou added: "We are disappointed but over the two legs, Shakhtar deserved to qualify.

"We had chances but not enough of our shots were on target.

"Nevertheless, we played superbly in the return leg and that is going to give us confidence."