Marseille v RB Salzburg: Marseille’s entertainers can make their mark

Marseille v RB Salzburg
Thursday 26 April, 20:05
Live on BT Sport

It must have stung Marseille fans to have watched PSG bring some of the brightest and best to Ligue 1 in recent seasons, while their own club struggled to find consistency, failing to end a trophy drought which stretches back to 2012. However, l’OM have outlasted their rivals from the capital in European competition this season, and they will feel they have a genuine chance of winning the Europa League.

Marseille were worthy winners of their quarter-final against RB Leipzig. They missed some great chances in the first leg, and their 1-0 defeat wasn’t perhaps reflective of how the match had gone in eastern Germany. Conceding an away goal to Leipzig in only the second minute of the return fixture put Rudi Garcia’s side in big trouble, but aided by a vociferous and passionate home crowd, they overwhelmed Leipzig to win 5-2 on the night.

Now they will look to upset the Red Bull football empire for a second time in short order. The weekend’s 5-1 hammering of Lille means that Marseille have now won their last three games, and they have scored 13 goals in the process. The outstanding Florian Thauvin has scored in all three of those matches, and if you combine Ligue 1 and the Europa League, he has contributed 21 goals and 12 assists this season.

The easing of Marseille’s injury problems means that Garcia has genuine strength-in-depth at his disposal. Keeper Steeve Mandanda and youngster Boubacar Kamara are the only definite absentees, while full-back Hiroki Sakai is an injury doubt after limping out of the resounding victory against Lille.

Having missed out on a place in the group stage of the Champions League thanks to a litany of qualifying failures, RB Salzburg have finally made their mark in continental competition. The Under-19 side won last season’s UEFA Youth League (a better standard of competition than you might think), and now the senior side have stormed into the Europa League semi-finals.

They have left some big names spluttering in their dust. Borussia Dortmund were outplayed and out-thought in a 2-1 aggregate win in the last 16, and the quarter-final success against Lazio was truly extraordinary. 4-2 down after a pulsating first leg at the Stadio Olimpico, RBS fell further behind when Ciro Immobile scored a second-leg opener.

All seemed lost, but Munas Dabbur levelled on the night, and then a barely believable flurry of three goals in four minutes completed one of the most extraordinary comebacks in the competition’s history. Having looked into the abyss and survived, Salzburg will now believe anything is possible.

Of course, this is a Salzburg team that is used to winning. They are 11 points clear at the top of the Austrian Bundesliga, and are set to win their ninth league title since they were re-formed as Red Bull Salzburg in 2005. They have only lost twice in the league all season, and their 4-2 reverse in Rome was their only defeat in their last 17 Europa League matches.

Midfielder Diadie Samassekou is available again after suspension, so highly-rated coach Marco Rose has a full deck to play with. Strikers Hee-Chan Hwang and Dabbur have seven goals between them in this season’s competition, and should spearhead the attack.

Marseille have the backing of the crowd and have hit form at just the right time. The return to Thauvin is a huge boost, and even though I’ve been very impressed by Salzburg in this competition, I think they may have to return to Austria with a deficit to overcome.

Marseille’s price of [1.7] to win the first leg is reasonable, but we can boost it to above evens by backing a Marseille/Over 2.5 Goals double at [2.14].

Thauvin has scored in all three of the games he’s played since he returned from injury, and he is in the form of his life this season. He can be backed at 11/10 on the Sportsbook to find the net in 90 minutes. Dimitri Payet was superb in the 5-2 win over Leipzig in the last round, and he’s 21/10 to score.

Munas Dabbur has five UEL goals to his credit this term, and can be backed at 9/5 to make it six.