Europa League: OM eliminates Benfica on penalties and joins Atalanta Bergamo in the semi-final
A crazy, intense European evening, before at least another: as it usually does for this kind of occasion, the Vélodrome stadium in Marseille was sublime, Thursday April 18, in the quarter-final return of the League Europa, during OM’s victory on penalties against Benfica (1-0, 4-2 tab). A volcanic atmosphere which gave wings to Jean-Louis Gasset’s players, long imprecise, but finally delivered by Luis Henrique during the penalty shootout.
Before that, Faris Moumbagna had kept the flame alive, scoring the goal of hope in the 79th minute after a long, fruitless domination of the Marseillais. At 1-0, OM were not qualified, but no longer eliminated either.
All that remained was to finish the job in overtime to reach the fourth Europa League semi-final in the history of the Marseille club, the first since 2018, but we had to wait for the penalty shootout, where Angel Di Maria and Antonio Silva missed, while all the Marseille shooters scored. OM will challenge Atalanta Bergamo, defeaters of Liverpool, on May 2 and 9.
OM and the penalties, however, are a story of disenchantment, with recent traumas still in everyone’s minds against Panathinaikos or Annecy. But the Marseille songs blew loudly on Thursday evening and took these bad memories far from the Marseille city. Even Angel Di Maria, scorer in the first leg and who so often shone against Marseille with PSG, gave up. The Argentine world champion sent his attempt – the first of the series – onto Pau Lopez’s post.
Starting on the right side of all the Portuguese attempts, the Spaniard logically ended up rejecting one: the fourth, signed Antonio Silva. While OM performed flawlessly, Luis Henrique came forward to put on the costume of the unexpected hero of the evening and make the Vélodrome exult like never before, deafening throughout the session. At the tip of the Brazilian’s foot: a fourth Europa League semi-final for OM, the first since 2018.
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