on thursday night, we will find out who the two uefa europa league finalists will be as there are two mouth-watering semi-final second legs to look forward to.
at the wanda metropolitano, atletico madrid entertain arsenal with the scores locked level at 1-1. the gunners must at least score in the spanish capital if they are to go through.
the other semi-final takes place at the red bull arena in wals-siezenheim, where red bull salzburg are up against it and need to overturn a 2-0 deficit against marseille.
take a look at our odds comparison, with the best betting odds and predictions on both semi-finals. can arsene wenger’s men defy the odds and pick up a win in madrid? will marseille see the job through in salzburg?
arsenal will be kicking themselves not to be taking a lead to madrid after playing for 80+ minutes against 10 men. atleti seemed content with a 1-0 defeat before antoine griezmann capitalised on some lacklustre arsenal defending to fire in a vital away goal eight minutes from time. it’s now advantage madrid in this tasty semi-final.
to be fair to the gunners, after sime vrsaljko’s sending off for two yellow cards after just 10 minutes, wenger’s men took the game to the spanish giants. after dominating possession and attempts on goal, the londoners finally made the breakthrough as alexandre lacazette’s header on 61 minutes gave the hosts the lead.
arsenal huffed and puffed in the hunt for a second but suffered a huge sucker punch late on as griezmann battled through the defence to score a priceless equaliser for atleti. that strike by the frenchman has put los colchoneros well and truly in the driving seat to qualify for the final in lyon.
diego simeone’s men are now just 4/11 to progress and 11/15 to win on the night in the metropolitano. arsenal, meanwhile, are priced at 4/1 with ladbrokes to win in madrid, while coral have wenger’s men at 5/2 to reach the final.
you can’t help but feel that arsenal’s best chance of progressing was by taking a handy lead to spain. atleti are incredibly hard to topple on their own patch, losing just twice in the metropolitano in all competitions this season, with one of those losses coming in a uefa champions league fixture against chelsea back in september. we like the look of betfair’s best betting odds of 21/10 for the home team to win -1 on thursday.
marco rose’s rb salzburg welcome rudi garcia’s marseille to the red bull arena for a fascinating second leg in austria. the french side may hold a 2-0 advantage, but this tie is not all over just yet. can salzburg turn things around, or will marseille do enough to reach the final?
despite seeing less of the ball and having fewer shots on goal, les phoceens did more than enough to take a foothold in this tie. former newcastle united flop florian thauvin continued his excellent goal-scoring form for marseille early on, giving his side the lead after just 15 minutes. ex-tottenham hotspur man clinton n’jie added a vital second just after the hour mark.
marseille may be seemingly on their way to the final in lyon, but rose’s men have had a habit of defying the odds in this year’s europa league. in the previous round, the red bulls were 4-2 down ahead of their second leg at home, going on to beat italian giants lazio 4-1 at fortress red bull arena.
with that said, marseille have all the experience in the world under garcia, which should see them over the line in salzburg. according to the odds comparison, the ligue 1 outfit are the strong favourites to qualify, with unibet pricing them at just 1/8. meanwhile, you can get rose’s boys at 11/2 (ladbrokes) to turn this around. on the night, the home team are the slight 23/20 favourites with coral, with marseille available at betting odds of 51/20.
we should be in for an interesting night in salzburg as the austrian bundesliga champions look to find a way back into the tie. however, marseille should do enough to get over the line in austria. check out the tempting betting odds of 6/1 with ladbrokes for these two sides to play out an entertaining 1-1 draw.