The Dutch side, who are flying high in second place in the Eredivisie, were worthy 1-0 winners at the Stade Velodrome in the first leg of their last-32 tie, Marko Arnautovic grabbing the winner in the 22nd minute.

They could even have come away with a bigger margin of victory given the number of chances they created.

Former England manager McClaren said: "Our victory was deserved because we controlled the match well against one of the best French teams.

"Despite the age of our players, they showed they have a great maturity. We are halfway there and we have gone up a level by winning here.

"It could be a dangerous result, though, because Marseille have nothing to lose and cannot allow themselves to switch off at all now."

Marseille were a shadow of the side that have been performing so well in Ligue 1 of late, wins over Bordeaux and Monaco building up their confidence heading into the resumption of the UEFA Cup.

But they badly underperformed last night, and should have been two or three goals down at the break.

OM improved in the second half, Baky Kone squandering a couple of chances, but they were relieved to see Blaise Nkufo - the striker who set up Arnautovic for the goal - crash a close-range header against the post with 10 minutes remaining.

"Looking at the match as a whole, we didn't deserve to win," said OM coach Eric Gerets.

"You have to accept that their team were stronger than us but there is still the return match.

"Twente are logically favourites but my team have proved in other circumstances that they can react. Not everything is lost."