UEFA Europa League: facing Olympique Marseille in the semi-final
First-ever European encounter with the French outfit
Bound to cross swords with French side Olympique de Marseille in the 2023-2024 UEFA Europa League semifinals, Atalanta will tread the Orange Vélodrome stadium in Marseille in the first leg game scheduled for Thursday, May 2, at 21:00 CEST before hosting the Phocaeans to the Gewiss Stadium in Bergamo one week later.
While it's the first European matchup between the two sides, Olympique Marseille will be the third French outfit to ever cross swords with the Nerazzurri in an international competition after the likes of Olympique Lyonnais (back in the 2017/18 UEFA Europa League Group Stage) and PSG in the 2019/20 UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.
One of the most awarded teams in France, Olympique de Marseille are the only Gaulian team to have ever lifted the Champions League -in 1993.
Trained by Jean-Louis Gasset, the French coach joined the Olympics' sideline last February after his stint as caretaker of the Ivorian National side.
As for their current UEFA Europa League run, having Olympique de Marseille closed the Group Stage as Group B's runners-up on 11 points (as a result of 3 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss), the French side made it to the RO16 upon defeating Shakhtar Donetsk in the knockout stage (while the first leg culminated in a 2-2 draw, the Marseille side ran out 3-1 winners in the return game). Les Minots then defeated Villareal in the Round of 16 (losing 3-1 in the 2nd leg after defeating the Spanish side 4-0 in the reverse game) and Benfica in the quarterfinals (despite losing 2-1 in Lisbon, not only did the French outfit manage to turn the tie around with a 1-0 home win; but they also knocked out the Lisboeta side on penalties). On the grounds of the 26 goals scored, OM have the third-best attacking line in the competition.
Moving on to their current stance in the French Ligue 1, Olympique Marseille are currently 7th on 44 points after 31 games: on Sunday, the Olympians returned to winning ways after six league games by defeating Lens 2-1 at home. The team's best scorer is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang with 27 goals in all competitions - due to his 10 nets in the UEL, the French-Gabonian striker is the current top scorer of the competition.