Marseille – Atl. Madrid Prediction & Picks (16.05.2018)

This Wednesday evening all eyes will be on the Groupama Stadium in Lyon, where Olympique Marseille and Atletico Madrid will compete for Europa League wins. It promises to be an exciting match between two teams with a totally different playing style.

Olympique Marseille:

For Olympique Marseille, the Europa League final is almost a home game. Thousands of blood fanatical fans make the South French the relatively short trip to more centrally located Lyon, to support their favorite team in the hunt for the second European grand prize in club history. In 1993 Les Phoceens already managed to seize the Champions League. “I was not even born yet,” said midfielder Maxime Lopez this week. “My father was there then and to this day he tells what went through him. It would really be a dream if we could repeat that. ”

The strength of Olympique Marseille is that it scores easily. Led by playmaker Dimitri Payet and goaltie thief Florian Thauvin, the French scored no less than sixteen goals in eight matches in the knockout stage of the Europa League. That is not a luxury, because the defense sometimes wants to drop, as we saw in the return in the semi-final of the Europa League. While visiting the Austrian Red Bull Salzburg, the team of coach Rudi Garcia defended a 2-0 lead from the first leg, but an extension had to be made to secure the final place. The rescue came from an unexpected corner, as it was the Portuguese defender Rolando who shot his team in the extra time to the final. However, together with the Greek striker Kostas Mitroglou, he is a doubtful case for the final battle against Atletico Madrid.

Atletico Madrid:

The elimination in the group stage of the Champions League was obviously a bitter pill, but immediately afterwards Atletico Madrid focused on winning the Europa League. The Spaniards added the word to the word, by being relatively carefree before the final battle of Wednesday evening in Lyon. Both FC Copenhagen, Lokomotiv Moscow, Sporting Lisbon and Arsenal never really made it difficult for the men of trainer Diego Simeone. In 2010 and 2012, the Madrilenians knew to write The Europa League on their name and in this edition they are of course the towering favorite for tournament win.

As is well known, the defense is the showpiece of Atletico Madrid, which also has only twenty goals against the least pass-by of the entire Spanish Primera Division. Players like Filipe Luis and of course Juanfran have defended themselves as art. Should the opponent still get through, then there is always Jan Oblak, in my eyes the best goalkeeper in the world. His reflexes are really phenomenal and last weekend he was very important again by grabbing a penalty in the 0-1 won city derby against Getafe. The Slovenian closing position this season saw more penalties (7) in all competitions in all competitions than he had to deal with (5), so even if it would turn out on penalties Wednesday night, the Los Colchoneros supporters do not have to despair. Nevertheless, a third European top prize under the Simeone regime is not an abc yet. The Spaniards have been a little troublesome in the last few weeks, because prior to the win-outs on Alaves and Getafe, they were left five away in a row without a win. In addition, Simeone is still not allowed to sit in the dug-out because of his misconduct when visiting Arsenal in the semi-finals.