Marseille v Atalanta: Back wily visitors to gain last-four upper hand

• Serie A side the smart selection

• Draw No Bet the way to play

• Star man Aubameyang to shine again

Marseille vs Atalanta
Thursday 2 May, 20.00
Live on TNT Sports 3

Visitors can cause serious problems

Atalanta are a smart bet to avoid defeat when they travel to Marseille for the Europa League semi-final first leg on Thursday night.

This promises to be an absorbing encounter between the Ligue 1 hosts that have reserved their best performances for Europe this season, and visitors that made Europe sit up and take notice in the last round.

Those that witnessed Atalanta 3-0 first-leg destruction of Liverpool in the quarter-final may be tempted to side with the Serie A team anyway, given the brilliance of that display on Merseyside.

The outright market certainly favours Atalanta. They're 4.03/1 second favourites to win the trophy, while Marseille are the 11.010/1 outsiders. Unsurprisingly, Bundesliga champions Bayer Leverkusen are 1.865/6 favourites to win the prize this season, with Roma third in the pecking order at 6.411/2.

Home fans will be frustrated

If Atalanta display even a share of the energy, pressing, togetherness and quick, decisive play when they get the ball that they did on that trip to England in the last round, then they will take some stopping here.

But there are factors involving home team Marseille that also make Atalanta the smart selection for those looking to profit from this meeting at Stade Velodrome.

Marseille have shown moments of quality in Europe, notably beating Villarreal and Benfica in the home legs of their last two ties during the knockout phase.

The presence of more than 60,000 supporters can have a debilitating impact on the players but Marseille and their experienced manager Jean-Louis Gasset have turned it to the team's advantage this season.

That said, Marseille didn't play amazingly well in the last round: they needed penalties to get past Benfica, and Atalanta will not have been scared by what they saw when scouting their opponents ahead of this week's encounter.

When pressed, Marseille often struggle, and if Atalanta have done their tactical homework - as they surely will - then there's every chance they can frustrate the home side for long spells here.

On the night the market makes this a close encounter. Marseille are 2.6813/8 to win, while Atalanta are 2.8815/8 and the Draw is 3.55/2.

At those odds, our selection is to back Atalanta to avoid defeat. You can support the Serie A visitors on the Draw No Bet market at 2.0421/20, and that would be our selection.

In the goalscoring markets, there's only one Marseille player to look towards, and that's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang.

He's been outstanding for the French outfit all season, and is now widely considered one of the club's best signings of the past two decades following his arrival last summer.

Their top scorer across all competitions by some distance, this season he also became the Europa League's all-time scorer. With 10 goals in his 11 appearances in the tournament this season - netted at a rate of a goal every 85 minutes - he'll be the man to look out for.

He also goes into this game having enjoyed the boost this week of being named on the five-man shortlist for Ligue 1's 2023-24 Player of the Year competition. That shows what an impact the Gabon international has had.
Aubameyang is available at 13/102.30 in the Anytime Goalscorer market.

Given his form in the competition and how reliant Marseille are on him, he's the player to support.

Now read our Roma vs Bayern Leverkusen preview here!

Football... Only Bettor - European semi-final special - Listen here!