Europa League: Marseille will meet an old acquaintance in the quarter-final

Marseille s'est fait peur lors du 8e de finale retour à Villareal mais il retrouvera Benfica en quarts. MAXPPP – SPEICH Frederic

Le tirage au sort des quarts de finale de la Ligue Europa a offert Benfica à Marseille avec un air de revanche après la demi-finale de 1990. 

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-finals -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).

La réaction de Basile Boli après le tirage de Benfica en 1/4 de finale de l'Europa Ligue 🗣️

Pensez-vous que Marseille peut aller en demi-finale ? 🤔#UEL pic.twitter.com/6zhaL3kC1D

— CANAL+ Foot (@CanalplusFoot) March 15, 2024

He will try for the first time to eliminate the Portuguese club, with the return match at the Stade Velodrome on March 18 (go to Lisbon on March 11). Marseille, which scared itself Thursday evening against Villarreal by being trailed 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.

Facing former Parisians

L'OM offers itself a historic poster with this hand scored goal in the 83rd minute which eliminated it from the gates of the final, a story including we still talk about the Old Port. Speaking of reunions, Marseille will meet 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.