Marseille vs Benfica

Marseille will be looking to overturn a 2-1 deficit when they meet Benfica in the return leg of their Europa League quarter-final tie at the Stade Velodrome.

Marseille’s hopes of making it out of this quarter-final tie face an uphill task, not least because the first-leg defeat condemned them to a fifth consecutive loss across all competitions. Manager Jean-Louis Gasset must steer his beleaguered side out of the abyss after losing touch with the European spots in Ligue 1. After having a weekend off, Les Olympiens return to the Stade Velodrome, where only Paris Saint-Germain have beaten them this season (W13, D6), looking to tip an evenly-balanced H2H home record in European competition into their favor (W1, L1). Confidence stems from Marseille’s formidable home form in the Europa League, as they’ve not lost such a fixture for over five years (W5, D3).

In the meantime, Benfica built on their first-leg success at the weekend, breezing past domestic rivals Moreirense 3-0 at home to set themselves up nicely for this trip. However, the visitors can’t take anything for granted, especially after blowing hot and cold across their last seven competitive travels (W2, D2, L3). That said, the Eagles have impressed on the continental front, suffering just two defeats in their previous 15 away European games (W8, D5) in a run stretching back to November 2021. Spirits are high around Roger Schmidt’s camp, considering they’ve only lost once in their last nine matches across all competitions (W6, D2), although their two most recent wins on the road yielded a narrow 1-0 scoreline.