Marseille take on the visitors Shakhtar Donetsk in the second leg of UEFA Europa League 1/16-finals. The match will be played on Thursday, September 22nd at Stade Vélodrome (Marseille).
Marseille in the second half of winter is frankly unimpressive. Olympique never managed to seriously compete with PSG, neither in 2022 nor last spring when they finished third in Ligue 1. It's no wonder that at the beginning of autumn, Marcelino, who arrived in the summer, left his post – he was simply eaten by the fans. Afterward, for a while, they calmed down, but neither Gattuso nor anyone else showed any significant improvement. Despite finishing second in their Europa League group, it was a decent result overall. However, they couldn't confirm it either in the cup (lost on penalties to Rennes) or in the league (a couple of draws, and then even a loss to Lyon). After those 0-1 defeats, the fans once again had a word with the management and players. They called it the last calm conversation – but after that, the Provencals settled for a draw with Metz. Then came the trip to Hamburg. There, despite taking the lead twice, the French were limited to a draw. After this, they ousted the Italian coach, bringing in Gasset as his replacement. His previous job was with the Ivory Coast national team, which had just won the AFCON. However, the coach was sacked during the group stage!
Shakhtar Donetsk manage to remain a serious force even in the current circumstances. Not in terms of domestic trophies – there, they are simply much stronger than everyone else right now. But even after losing most of their star foreign players in the spring of 2022, the team (including graduates who may not be top sellers but still cost a lot, especially Mudrik) managed to finish 3rd in the last Champions League cycle and make it to the Europa League playoffs, beating French side Rennes but losing to Feyenoord – the defeat in Rotterdam was decisive for Jovic. He was replaced in the coaching position by Van Leuven, who had previously worked within the club's structure. However, he was only positively remembered for a victory, more due to luck than skill, over Antwerp. The young and relatively unknown Pushich, who replaced him, not only won against the Belgian debutant outsider but also, surprisingly, against Barcelona. However, like the year before, the key match of the 6th round, against a direct competitor, this time Porto, was lost, and quite deservedly so. Well, the focus was serious on the Europa League, so they didn't sell Sudakov to Juventus or anyone else. On the contrary, they started buying Brazilian talents again for good money. However, as often happens, the Europa League match was the first official one for the Ukrainian champions in 2024, a couple of months later. With plenty of mistakes from both sides, they played to a 2-2 draw.
In 2009, the teams crossed paths in the UEFA Cup. After defeating the French side twice, the Ukrainians won their only international title. Olympique is considered the clear favorite in the home match. But let's use the neutral total over 2.5 goals option instead.
Prediction for the match: Over 2.5 scored goals.
