Benfica play hosts to Marseille in Lisbon this Thursday afternoon in the Europa League and Forebet is back with all the latest football predictions, analysis, data and probability of a win with all the mathematics considered.
The two teams are having very contrasting seasons in their respective top flights, as Marseille sit down in eighth in what is one of their worst campaigns in Ligue 1 this century after finishing third last time out.
Treino #SLBOM https://t.co/HGwi3bIBzL— SL Benfica (@SLBenfica) April 10, 2024
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A third-placed spot in France's top tier brings you into the Europa League, and Marseille would go on to finish second in Group B behind Brighton & Hove Albion. The only defeat the French side suffered in that group was to the Premier League outfit, as Marseille lost 1-0 at the AMEX in England.
A second-placed finish in the group did also mean Marseille had to battle in the playoffs where they met with and beat Shakhtar Donetsk over two legs. They would get a 2-2 draw away to the Ukraine outfit with a finish each from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Iliman Ndiaye coming in the second half.
The second leg finished 3-1 at home to Shakhtar where Aubameyang netted once more before finishes from Ismalia Sarr and Geoffrey Kondogbia saw a 5-3 aggregate win.
Further wins in the Europa League saw them ease past Villarreal, as they won 4-0 at home before a 3-1 loss on the road - Aubameyang netted two more goals across those two games.
However, despite the excellence in Europe, Marseille continue to struggle on the domestic front. The club are down in eighth with only 10 wins from 28 games and now nine defeats after their third loss in a row.
In fact, with a loss to Villarreal too, their defeats to Rennes, Paris Saint-Germain and Lille mean a four-game losing run.
Benfica are sitting second in Liga Portugal but they are adrift of Sporting Lisbon by four points with the latter having a game in hand. Benfica lost to Sporting last time out with a late winner from them, as Alexander Bah netted for the second-placed side.
The club also lost to their Lisbon rivals in the Taca de Portugal before this as well, and they only narrowly edged past Rangers in a 3-2 aggregate win where Benfica won 1-0 away in Scotland.
Forebet now predicts a draw in this game and for the match to see over 2.5 goals in the first leg against Marseille