Marseille is therefore the last French club involved in the European Cup this season. OM won 1-0 on Thursday, April 14, in their Europa League Conference quarter-final second leg, on the lawn of PAOK Salonika. A victory on a goal from Dimitri Payet combined with that of the first leg (2-1) which allows the OM players to reach the last four of the competition, where they will find the Dutch from Feyenoord Rotterdam, who fell from Prague.
In Greece, Dimitri Payet’s teammates took the game by the right end and were not intimidated by the noisy supporters of PAOK. Unlike OL, eliminated the same evening in the quarter-finals of the Europa League by the English of West Ham (3-0 on the return), the Marseillais managed not to concede a goal in the first half, in a meeting which looked like a trap.
And for a quarter of an hour, OM almost fell into the trap. As expected, the Greeks were carried away by the fury and the hellish noise of a stadium where smoke bombs, deafening whistles and chants multiplied. To get Marseille out of business, it took a lot of character and above all the tranquility of the very placid Steve Mandanda, who chained a third consecutive match on Thursday, thus becoming a real competitor to Pau Lopez.
Payet cooled the PAOK
After resisting, the Marseillais very seriously calmed the ardor of PAOK thanks to Dimitri Payet. On a ball stupidly lost by Crespo, Guendouzi played the shot perfectly after a relay from Bakambu to serve Payet in the position of center forward and author on the stroke of his eleventh European goal, third best total of the club behind Papin and Niang ( 1-0, 34and).
The essentials were done and Marseille then mastered, even if the long catalog of absences (Gerson, Kamara, Dieng, Milik, Balerdi, De la Fuente, Alvaro…) forced Jorge Sampaoli, suspended Thursday, to push his starting men until the end or almost, with only two changes, the entry of Ünder in place of Bakambu and the very late entry of Kolasinac for Payet.
Mandanda also had to remain vigilant not to concede the goal which would have revived the Greeks and above all ignited a stadium which was only waiting to vibrate during the last minutes of madness. The goalkeeper was solid especially in front of Zivkovic (70and) and also had some luck when Colak and Douglas Augusto struck close wide.
In the end, Marseille continues its very good series, now increased to eight consecutive victories. They thus perfectly prepare the meeting against PSG, Sunday at the Parc des Princes. Above all, they therefore validate their ticket for the semi-finals against Feyenoord Rotterdam. The first leg will take place on April 28 in the Netherlands and the return on May 5 at the Vélodrome.