Coupe de France: Marcelo Bielsa takes blame for Marseille's shock exit to Grenoble

Marcelo Bielsa insists the blame for Marseille's Coupe de France exit to fourth-tier Grenoble must lie with him.

The Ligue 1 leaders were beaten 5-4 on penalties, having conceded an equaliser in the last minute of extra time to peg them back to a 3-3 draw.

And Bielsa told L'Equipe: "The defeat is unjustifiable.

"There is no point watching the match again. There is no way of explaining a defeat like that.

"The blame lies with me, not my players. In a game like this, where the difference between the teams is so big, I was managing the team who had all the means to impose themselves and I am more to blame than my players for the fact we did not succeed."

The Chilean did, though, defend the decision to substitute two-goal striker Andre-Pierre Gignac in the second half.

Bielsa had made the decision to bring on Andre Ayew and he explained: "I took off Gignac because I understood we needed (Dimitri) Payet as a number 10, the choice was to take off Gignac or (Michy) Batshuayi and Gignac had a shoulder injury."

Gignac had twice given OM the lead but Mourad Nasrallah and Fares Hachi levelled to force extra time. Ayew then scored and looked to have seen Marseille through but Selim Bengriba's dramatic 120th-minute strike gave the minnows the chance to win it from 12 yards.

Nasrallah netted the decisive penalty after goalkeeper Paul Cattier had kept out Marseille's fourth effort, taken by Florian Thauvin.

Cattier had also made three brilliant saves from Thauvin in normal time and another in stoppage time after the 90 minutes, as well as tipping Batshuayi's shot onto a post.

And he told Eurosport after the game: "We knew we needed to produce our best game to achieve an upset. My saves helped keep the team afloat."

Forward Fabien Tchenkoua added: "It's an achievement, we have done something special here. It's great for the team."