Benfica invite Marseille to Lisbon for a meeting the knockout round of 16 in the Europa League this Thurday night. Both will see this game as a chance to progress to the quarter-finals where it really becomes anyones tournament. The bookies are mostly sitting on the fence on this one, but an indepth look at the players should tell us where the battle will be lost or won.
European Records
While Marseille have not won their domestic league more than Saint-Etienne, who have won Ligue 1 ten times to Marseille’s eight, Marseille do remain the only French club to win the Champions League, with Didier Deschamps taking them to glory in the ‘92/’93 season. With a second-tier trophy to add to their collection they could put some distance between themselves and the competition at home in terms of European silverware.
Benfica, in contrast, are Portugal’s most successful club, with 31 Portuguese Liga titles under their belt. On top of this, too, they have played in seven Champions League finals (when it was formerly known as the European Cup) and have won two during their glory days of the 1960s when they reached five finals, contesting three in a row from 1960-1963.
Where the Game Will be Won
This is a game which will no doubt be won on aggregate over two legs as no one will clearly come out on top. Both teams’ defences are strong and it is the one that keeps a clean sheet that will probably progress through to the quarter finals. Benfica’s two Brazilian centre-backs Luiz and Luisao are, despite both being under 30, experienced in the big games. Marseille’s Gabriel Heinze and Vitorino Hilton are two big and experienced type who know how to handle centre-forwards.
The game looks like it will be won in the midfield. On the wings we will see Marseille’s Bonnart, Taiwo and Ben Arfa fight for dominance in support of their strikers, a force that will probably include the adept Spaniard Fernando Morientes and their captain Mamadou Niang. Rather than challenging the centre-backs, if they are able to get the better of Benfica’s defensive midfielders Garcia and Di Maria then they may just be able to get something away tonight.
We can expect that Morientes will battle it out for possession with this compatriot Garcia in the final third, and the same goes for the other end of the pitch where the fascinating battle between Marseille’s Argentines Heinze and Lucho Gonzalez will have trouble on their hands dealing with their international team mates Aimar and Saviola, though we may see Nuno Gomes take Saviola’s spot.
While both teams will, no doubt, attempt blistering runs in the box, and the goals will more than likely come from the strikers, with such a wealth of knowledge of each other and an experienced defence at both ends of the pitch, this will be a much more entertaining match if the shots come from distance after struggles in the final third.
Stephen Lunn - I am a student over here in Northern Ireland, nearing the end of BSc in Music Technology. A freelance writer, I've been providing content ...
