Olympique de Marseille will face Benfica Lisbon in the quarter-finals of the Europa League. He will try to eliminate the Portuguese club for the first time, with a first leg on April 11 and return at the Stade Vélodrome on April 18.
Olympique de Marseille will meet Benfica Lisbon in the quarter-final of the Europa League, after the draw on Friday, a club against which it has an old revenge to take since the hand of Vata in 1990. Eliminated in the semi-final of the C1 34 years ago, after this memorable contentious action (2-1/0-1), OM also lost against Benfica in the round of 16 of the C3 in 2010 (1-1/1-2). He will try to eliminate the Portuguese club for the first time, with the return match at the Stade Vélodrome on April 18 (go to Lisbon on April 11).
OM avoids the two favorites
Marseille, which scared itself Thursday evening against Villarreal by being led 3-0 (final score: 3-1) despite its large first-leg victory (4-0), escaped the worst in this draw by avoiding the two favorites, Liverpool, opposed to Atalanta Bergamo, and Bayer Leverkusen who will meet West Ham.
OM achieved a historic performance with this hand-scored goal in the 83rd minute which eliminated them from reaching the final, a story that is still talked about in the Old Port. Speaking of reunions, Marseille will find Angel Di Maria, who made him suffer when he played for PSG, and another former Parisian, Juan Bernat.
Benfica is not in great shape. The Lisbon giant lost the lead in the Portuguese Championship standings, overtaken by Sporting, and corrected by its great rival FC Porto (5-0) on March 3.