The UEFA Europa League Final will be settled on May 16th, 2018 and taking their places in the showcase match will be Marseille and Atletico Madrid. The Final is being held in France at the Stade de Lyon and for the game and only for administrative purposes, Marseille will be the home side. That was decided after the draw for the semi-finals.
So Marseille at least gets to play on French soil for the Final, however, it is their opponents, two-time winners of the tournament, who will be kicking off as the favourites to lift the trophy. Kick off for the 2018 Europa League Final is at 7:45 p.m. The winner of the Final will get the added bonus of booking a place in next season’s Champions League group stage as well.
Marseille v Atletico Madrid Odds*
Atletico Madrid 8/11, Draw 5/2, Marseille 4/1* (betting odds taken on May 4th, 2018 at 8:19 p.m.)
Marseille’s Road to the Final
It has been something of an epic campaign from Marseille in the Europa League. They entered at the Third Qualifying round where they eased past Oostende. Then it was into the play offs against Slovenia side Domzale and again there was comfortable progress through for the French side.
So their Group Stage campaign saw them go up against Konyaspor, Vitoria SC and RB Salzburg, the latter of which they would later re-meet at the semi-final stage. There was patchy form from the French side in the group stage. They won their first two home games, beating Konyaspor and Vitoria, but sandwiched inbetween was a loss at Salzburg. They also lost on the road in match day four at Vitoria.
Then they played out at back to back draws to round off the group campaign and Marseille managed just the four goals in their six league games. But they stepped it up from them. They knocked out Braga 3-1 on aggregate after winning at home and losing away in the round of 32 and that put them against Athletic Bilbao in the round of sixteen. There was a high scoring affair between the two with Marseille getting through 5-2 on aggregate.
It was a strong show in front of goal that saw Marseille get past RB Leipzig in the quarter finals, the French side fighting back from losing the first leg 1-0 away and conceding the opening goal of the second leg at home to win 5-2 on aggregate. In the semi finals, Marseille had a rematch with Salzburg.
OM won the first leg at home 2-0 and then it was just a matter of trying to tough it out in the away leg. Salzburg though battled back well, took a 2-0 win on home soil which sent the match over extra time when Rolanda netted a winner for the French club four minutes from time to put the French side through to the final.
Atletico Madrid’s Road to the Final
Their European campaign started in the UEFA Champions League and things didn’t go too well for them there at all. They well below par in the tournament as they failed to get the better of Roma and Chelsea in their group campaign, to only land a third-place finish and land themselves down in the Europa League. But while their Champions League campaign had gone so poorly, they more than made up for it in the Europa League.
They faced up to FC Copenhagen in the round of 32 with Atletico doing all the damage in the first leg on the round, winning 4-1. It was them an impressive 8-1 aggregate win for them over Lokomotiv Moscow in the round of sixteen and that was really when they looked is they were really dialled in and hungry for this. They had a tighter squeeze in the quarter finals though as they faced up to Portugal’s Sporting.
After winning the first leg 2-0 at home, Atletico Madrid edged their way through despite a 1-0 loss in the second leg. Then they were paired up with English Premier League side Arsenal in the semi-finals. The Spaniards took control with a first leg 1-0 win away from home and killed off the tie by the same scoreline back on home soil.
Previous UEFA Cup/Europa League Finals
For Marseille, this will be their first appearance in the final of the UEFA Cup/Europa League but Atletico Madrid have been here twice before and have won it on both occasions. They got their hands on the title in the 2010 and 2012 Finals from their only two previous appearances in the final.
2018 Europa League Final Preview
Atletico Madrid are the 4/6 favourites at bet365* (betting odds taken on May 7th, 2018 at 5:28 p.m.). Not only do they have the big match experience of having won the event twice before they have once again proven just how strong of a side that they are. They are on course to secure second place in La Liga behind Barcelona and they have made pretty light work of most of their Europa League campaign.
After dropping down from the Champions League, there was perhaps a question of how committed they would be to this. But the goals that they put on the board in thumping the likes of Copenhagen and Lokomotiv Moscow answered a lot of that. Even when they had to dig in against Sporting and Arsenal, they showed the strength that they have at the back.
Atletico’s game is built on organization and defensive stability but in Antoine Griezmann, Kevin Gameiro and Diego Costa they have a good scoring depth to their squad and Griezmann is the 7/2 first goalscorer favourite for the Europa League Final* (betting odds taken on May 7th, 2018 at 5:28 p.m.). They are just so rock solid at the back that Marseille are likely going to have a hard time breaking them down.
Marseille only finished second in their Europa League group, but showed plenty of scoring power in the knockout stages as they progressed though. They have had plenty of goals in them and that carried them through even though they were not always the most composed of sides at the back and had to play their way out trouble more than once.
They have had a great season once again Ligue 1 where they are challenging for a top-three finish. They have proven to be a positive attacking side as well, notably through Florian Thauvin who has had a very profitable season in front of goal. Both teams to score at bet365 is at 21/20 odds* (betting odds taken on May 7th, 2018 at 5:28 p.m.) if you fancied them getting themselves on the scoresheet.
Head to Head
Atletico Madrid and Marseille have met twice before and that was in the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League group stage. The first game was in Spain which Atletico Madrid won 2-1 before playing out a 0-0 draw in France.
Predictions
Atletico Madrid are going to be a tough nut for Marseille to crack on the day and the Spaniards get the nod. Marseille are more than capable of producing some good attacking threats in a game but along the Europa League knockout campaign they have also conceded a lot of goals. They will find the Spaniards harder to break down than anyone else they have faced and Atletico have the firepower to pick off an exposed defence. Atletico to make it three from three in Europa League Finals.
