Marseille will be hoping to make home advantage count when they welcome Salzburg to the Stade Velodrome in Thursday’s Europa League semi-final first leg.
Les Phoceens have won seven and lost none of their eight home games in this season’s competition, having claimed just one victory on the road.
Latest Odds
With a difficult trip to Austria to contend with next week, they are 13/20 (1.65)favourites with bet365 to give themselves a cushion by coming out on top in front of their own fans.
However, Marco Rose’s men have only lost once in 14 European fixtures this campaign and can be backed at 17/4 (5.25)to put one foot in the final with a priceless away win here.
GettyThe sides shared a 0-0 draw when they met on this ground in last season’s group stage, and you can get odds of 11/4 (3.75) on them cancelling each other out once again.
Team news
Hiroki Sakai is expected to miss out after being forced off in Saturday’s 5-1 Ligue 1 win over Lille, while Steve Mandanda and Boubacar Kamara are also unavailable due to injury.
Diadie Samassekou should return after missing Die Roten Bullen’s last Europa League game due to suspension, giving them a full squad to choose from.
Goals aplenty
Although they produced just one goal between them in two Europa League encounters last campaign, there should be more goalmouth action when they come face-to-face in this tie.
Rudi Garcia’s team have scored 24 goals in their last 10 fixtures, and 11 in three European matches in their own backyard.
However, having also failed to keep a clean sheet in five games in this competition, the home side may struggle at the other end of the pitch against a visiting attack that has scored 12 times in their last six Europa League matches.
Predictions
All in all, even odds (2.00) offer solid value on both teams finding the net and over 2.5 goals being scored for Marseille’s fourth Europa League game in five, as well as Salzburg’s sixth in seven.
Both teams to score & over 2.5 goals at evens (2.00) with bet365 for a 1.5pt stake