Salzburg v Marseille background
Friday, April 27, 2018
Article summary
For the second round in a row, Salzburg face a two-goal deficit at home as they seek to recover their tie against Marseille.
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Salzburg need a repeat of their quarter-final heroics if they are to deny Olympique de Marseille a place in the 2018 UEFA Europa League final in nearby Lyon. The French side bring a handy lead to the city of Mozart following their 2-0 victory at the Stade Vélodrome but will be wary of the Austrian club's outstanding form at home.
• Salzburg, who are closing in on a fifth successive Austrian league title, have gone 38 games without defeat in their stadium since November 2016, winning 30 of those matches and nine of the ten they have played there in 2018.
• Both clubs staged memorable comebacks in the quarter-finals, Marseille overturning a 1-0 first-leg deficit at Leipzig with a dramatic 5-2 victory in the south of France while Salzburg stormed to a 4-1 second-leg win over Lazio, scoring four times in the second half after they had lost the first encounter 4-2 in Rome – their first European defeat in 20 matches – and fallen a further goal behind at home.
• Salzburg, like Marseille, are making their first appearance in the UEFA Europa League semi-finals. They finished top of their group – for a record fourth time – before eliminating both Real Sociedad and Borussia Dortmund by a one-goal margin in the first two knockout rounds.
• Runners-up to Salzburg in Group I, Marseille overcame Braga 3-1 on aggregate in the round of 32 before home (3-1) and away (2-1) wins against Athletic Club in the last 16.
Previous meetings
• Goals in each half from Florian Thauvin and substitute Clinton Njie, both set up by captain Dimitri Payet, gave Marseille their eighth home win of the European season in the first leg, although Salzburg's luckless evening was capped when Fredrik Gulbrandsen struck the inside of the post late on.
• Marseille and Salzburg had not met in a competitive fixture until this season.
• The teams were also drawn together in the group stage. Their first encounter came on matchday two, hosts Salzburg winning 1-0 thanks to a 73rd-minute strike from Israeli striker Munas Dabbur. A goalless draw in the matchday six return enabled Marseille to join already-qualified Salzburg in the round of 32 and the Austrian side to post a record-equalling fifth successive UEFA Europa League clean sheet.
• Salzburg have never previously played a team from France in a knockout tie; their other six contests all came in the UEFA Europa League group stage.
• Salzburg's seven matches against French opponents have brought three wins, one draw and three defeats. Their home record is W2 L1.
• This is only Marseille's second two-legged tie against Austrian opposition, following a 1-0 aggregate win against Austria Wien in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.
• Marseille's record in seven games against Austrian clubs is W3 D2 L2. Away it is W1 L2.
Form guide
• Salzburg were unbeaten in 19 European matches (W11 D8) until their quarter-final first-leg defeat away to Lazio. They do, however, remain undefeated in ten UEFA matches at home (W7 D3), during which they have scored 20 goals and conceded just three.
• Having come undefeated through the UEFA Europa League group stage for a record fourth time, this is Salzburg's first appearance in the semi-finals, their previous best performance having come in 2013/14 when they reached the last 16.
• Salzburg's concession of just one goal in this season's group stage equalled another UEFA Europa League record, set by Standard Liège in 2011/12, although the seven goals they scored was the lowest registered by any of the 12 group winners. They have since found the target 12 times in seven knockout fixtures.
• Austrian league and cup double winners for the past four seasons, and 1994 UEFA Cup runners-up, Salzburg missed the cut in last year's UEFA Europa League group stage – after succeeding in their previous three attempts.
• Salzburg's only previous European semi-final resulted in an away-goals triumph against Karlsruhe in the 1993/94 UEFA Cup (0-0 home, 1-1 away).
• Marseille have won only one of their last nine European away fixtures – 2-1 in Bilbao against Athletic Club in this season’s round of 16. They have scored just five goals in those nine games and have lost four of the last six 1-0, but all of the scorelines registered during that run would be good enough to see them through this tie.
• UEFA Cup runners-up in 1998/99 and 2003/04, and quarter-finalists in 2008/09, Marseille have reached the UEFA Europa League's last four for the first time in four attempts. Their previous campaigns ended in the round of 16 (2009/10), the group stage (2012/13) and the round of 32 (2015/16).
• Marseille have participated in five previous European semi-finals, losing the first two – against Ajax in the 1987/88 European Cup Winners' Cup (0-3 home, 2-1 away) and Benfica in the 1989/90 European Cup (2-1 home, 0-1 away) – but winning the next three – against Spartak Moskva (3-1 away, 2-1 home) in the 1990/91 European Cup, Bologna (0-0 home, 1-1 away) in the 1998/99 UEFA Cup and Newcastle United (0-0 away, 2-0 home) in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup. There were no semi-finals in 1992/93, when they won the inaugural UEFA Champions League.
• OM's away record in European semi-finals is therefore W2 D2 L1 F6 A4.
• Marseille finished fifth in last season's Ligue 1 and entered the UEFA Europa League in the third qualifying round, where they defeated Belgium's Oostende 4-2 on aggregate before getting the better of Slovenian side Domžale in the play-offs (4-1). They scored only four goals in finishing runners-up to Salzburg in their group but have since found the net 15 times in seven knockout phase encounters, matching their Austrian opponents' overall 13-match total of 19.
• Salzburg have won six of the 15 UEFA competition ties in which they were defeated in the away first leg, most recently against Lazio in the quarter-final.
• On the three occasions that the margin of defeat has been 0-2, the Austrian club have prevailed only once, recovering to win 3-0 at home against Sporting CP in the third round of the 1993/94 UEFA Cup – a competition in which they finished as runners-up. The most recent instance – against Dinamo Minsk in the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League play-offs – ended with elimination on penalties.
• Marseille have won 14 of the 20 UEFA competition ties in which they have claimed a home first-leg lead, three of those aggregate victories this season – in the third qualifying round against Oostende, the round of 32 against Braga and the round of 16 against Athletic Club.
• They have won the first home leg 2-0 twice in the past, losing in the 1973/74 UEFA Cup second round against Köln (0-6 away) but then beating AEK Athens in the 1989/90 European Cup second round (1-1 away).
Links and trivia
• Marseille and Salzburg have both played in the UEFA Cup final but never won it, OM losing 3-0 to Parma in 1999 and 2-0 to Valencia in 2004, and Salzburg going down 2-0 on aggregate (0-1 home, 0-1 away) to Internazionale in 1994.
• No French or Austrian club has ever won the UEFA Cup or UEFA Europa League. Salzburg are the only previous Austrian finalist, with Bastia (1977/78) and Bordeaux (1995/96) the only teams from France other than Marseille to have gone the full distance.
• Salzburg are the only reigning domestic champions left in the competition. They are also the only semi-finalists who have never lifted a major UEFA trophy – although they did win last season's UEFA Youth League, beating Benfica in the final under Marco Rose, the club's current senior head coach.
• This is the Austrian club's 20th European match in 2017/18 – more than any other team in the semi-finals. Defender Andreas Ulmer has been on the field for every minute of a campaign that began in the second qualifying round of the UEFA Champions League; Dabbur has also started all 19 matches.
• Austria are the 11th nation to be represented in the UEFA Europa League semi-finals.
• This season Salzburg became the first club to win their UEFA Europa League group on four occasions. Eleven others have achieved the feat three times.
• This is Salzburg's 60th UEFA Europa League match, group stage to final; only Spanish clubs Villarreal (62) and Athletic Club (61) have played more. Their tally of 30 wins is bettered only by Villarreal (33), with just Villarreal and Athletic having surpassed their haul of 94 goals.
• On-loan Salzburg defender Jérôme Onguéné started his senior career in France with Sochaux; he was playing in the reserves while Marseille goalkeeper Yoann Pelé (2014–15) was in the senior side, the pair playing three first-team games together in May 2015.
• Payet has recorded six assists in this season's UEFA Europa League – the joint highest in the competition alongside Real Sociedad's Sergio Canales. Salzburg's Stefan Lainer has five.
• Adil Rami, a starter in 15 of Marseille's 17 European encounters this term, won the 2015/16 UEFA Europa League with Sevilla, appearing in seven matches including the final against Liverpool.
• Luiz Gustavo is the only Marseille player to have started all of the team's 13 matches in this season's UEFA Europa League group stage and knockout phase.
• Marseille are the only former UEFA Champions League winners in the semi-finals.
• This is the French club's 18th UEFA Europa League fixture this season. It surpasses the previous longest European campaign in OM's history – a 17-match odyssey from the UEFA Champions League qualifying phase to the UEFA Cup final in 2003/04.
• Takumi Minamino (Salzburg) and Hiroki Sakai (Marseille) are both Japanese internationals.
Penalty shoot-outs
• Salzburg's record in two UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W1 L1:
5-4 v Eintracht Frankfurt, 1993/94 UEFA Cup quarter-final
2-3 v Dinamo Minsk, 2015/16 UEFA Europa League play-off
• Marseille's record in UEFA penalty shoot-outs is W2 L1:
3-5 v Crvena zvezda, 1990/91 European Champion Clubs' Cup final
4-1 v Germinal Beerschot, 2005/06 UEFA Cup first round
7-6 v FC Twente, 2008/09 UEFA Cup round of 32
The coaches
• Previously Salzburg's youth team boss, Marco Rose stepped up to the senior helm after predecessor Óscar García left last June, having led the club to victory in the 2016/17 UEFA Youth League. A defender with home-town club Leipzig, Hannover and Mainz, he has been on Salzburg's coaching staff since 2013.
• Marseille coach since October 2016, Rudi Garcia started out as a midfielder at Lille, returning to lead the club from 2008–13 and masterminding their Ligue 1/Coupe de France double triumph in 2010/11. He subsequently spent three seasons in charge of Roma, leading the Giallorossi to back-to-back runners-up spots in Serie A.