Football. ua presents the announcement of the first semifinal match of the Europa League between Marseille and RB Salzburg.
In the first semifinal match of the Europa League, the draw was drawn by Marcel and RB Salzburg - teams that most specialists did not expect to see at this stage of the tournament. However, now one of them will be in the final and try with the third (Marseilles) or the second (RB Salzburg) attempts to win the second most important European club trophy.
Marseille - RB Salzburg Thursday, April 26, 10:05 pm. Marseille, Stud Velodrome. Arbitrator - William Column (Scotland). Live broadcast on the channel Football 2 Marcel and RB Salzburg are well aware of each other, because this season were in one quartet of the group round of the League of Europe. Pleasant memories of those two meetings remained with the Austrian team, which beat the French at home (1: 0) and shared with them points on the road (0: 0). As a result, the "bulls" finished in the first place, and their current rivals were second, behind four points.
Stage playoffs, both teams were confident enough, although there were times when their fans had to be pretty worried. For example, in the quarterfinals where the RB met Lazio, while Marcel played against the "brothers" of Salzburg from Germany - RB Leipzig.
In the first match against Lazio at Stadio Olimpico, the bulls looked very good, but conceded two goals under the curtain of the meeting and eventually finished the match with a score of 2: 4. In response, the same match was opened by the Italians, whose advantage increased to 5: 2 on the sum of two matches. And then suddenly there was one of the go-kabaks that recently became quite common in European cups: the hosts scored four goals (three of them in just 244 seconds!) And went to the semifinals.
In a similar scenario, the quarterfinal duels of Marcel were also held: the defeat in the first match on the road (0: 1), the missed ball in the return match and the ensuing scoring extravaganza.
Our time is now. Glory is near. #OurStoryContinues | pic. twitter. com / iO9FEh93qX - Olympique Marseille (@OM_English) 25 квітня 2018 р.
Based on such effectiveness, we can expect a bright spectacle, both in the first match, and in the return. In Marseilles, the Austrians will obviously have a hard time, because the hosts in this draw are betting on home games, and they were able to withstand Velodrome only ... RB Salzburg in the group stage (0: 0). At the same time, one can recall that no team from Austria has managed to print the gates of Provencal in the official duel.
The strength of Salzburg is the character of the team, which repeatedly managed to win back, losing in the course of the meeting. As for the effectiveness, the motto posted on the emblem of Marcel: "Forward, to the goal! "Is quite suitable for both teams. At times, such purposefulness is detrimental, since neither team can boast of the special reliability of the defense (Marcel's main weakness is standards and long-range strikes, as the second goalkeeper Pele is clearly inferior in class to the injured Mandanda).
If in this semifinal pair success will accompany RB Salzburg, the Austrian team will set a record for the number of matches played in the euro-season. The return match against Marel will be the 20th, and this will be a repeat of the record of Bordeaux (season-1995/1996) and Basel (season-2012/2013), and the final will be the 21st and, accordingly, a record.
Interesting facts - Marcel and RB Salzburg in the group stage played in Group I.
- In Salzburg, the hosts won with a score of 1: 0, and in Marseille was a draw - 0: 0.
- In the final standings RB Salzburg won first place, gaining 12 points and 4 points ahead of Marseille.
- On the way to the semifinals of RB Salzburg defeated Real Sociedad (2: 2 and 2: 1), Borussia D (2: 1 and 0: 0) and Lazio (2: 4 and 4: 1).
- RB Salzburg played six times with representatives of the League 1 - 3 wins, a draw and 2 losses.
- RB Salzburg only once played in the semifinals - in the season-1993/1994 the "bulls" beat Karlsruhe at the expense of the ball, scored on the road (0: 0 and 1: 1).
- Marcel in the playoffs passed Braga (3-0 and 0-1), Athletic (3: 1 and 2: 1) and RB Leipzig (0: 1 and 5: 2).
- Marseille does not lose in the last eight home games of the League of Europe - 7 wins and a draw.
- Marcel met with representatives of the Austrian Bundesliga six times - 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses.
- Marcel never missed home in the European Cup matches against the Austrian teams.
- Marcel went to the European Cup semifinals five times, winning in three cases - in the 1990/91 season with Spartak M (3: 1 and 2: 1) in the Champions' Cup, 1998/99 in Bologna (0: 0 and 1 : 1) and in the 2003/04 season, with Newcastle (0-0 and 2-0) in the UEFA Cup.
Approximate compositions Will not play: Mandanda, Camara (both - Marseille).
In doubt: Sakai (Marcel).
Words by Marco Rose, coach of RB Salzburg:.
"We want to play so that 67,000 spectators who will be sick against us could not help Marcel. We respect our rival, but in no case are we afraid of him. The strength of our team is in its unity. All eleven players entering the field are equally important and act as a whole. If this is the case in Marseille, then we will be able to achieve the desired result ".
Rudy Garcia, coach of Marseille:.
"I would like to see a duel against Salzburg resemble a meeting with Leipzig in the quarterfinals. To our team showed that they can miss, but will score much more. Salzburg is not an easy opponent.
In the group stage they were able to beat us in Austria and did not allow us to beat ourselves in France. In addition, they are ahead of us in the rating of UEFA ... However, now we know them very well, and we will try to prove that the April version of Marseilles is much stronger than the one with which they met in autumn ".
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