Despite being well-backed ahead of last week’s first-leg in Slovenia, French club Marseille couldn’t quite manage a victory as they drew 1-1. An away-goal does indeed give them the advantage ahead of this match; however, the tie is far from over and so there’s still plenty of work for Rudi García’s men to do.
Juggling between continental and domestic action is never the easiest thing to do, especially when the Europa League means generally playing Thursday and Sunday, and it was fairly clear that Marseille, who drew 1-1 in the league at the weekend, were feeling the effects of playing away in Slovenia just three days before their Ligue 1 fixture against Angers. Having said that, there will be no excuses for the hosts here as they didn’t have to travel at the weekend and have the luxury of playing this fixture at home too.
Marseille are one of France’s biggest clubs and so you’d certainly have to fancy them against a Domzale side who can be described as Europa League minnows having never made it through qualifying. However, while overpowering the Slovenian outfit on home soil is well within their capabilities, the hosts haven’t looked all that sharp at the back so far this season and so it wouldn’t be the greatest surprise if they were to encounter a few complications along the way. At 5/2, ‘Marseille to Win & Both Teams to Score’ looks a good bet.
They may have kept back-to-back clean sheets at the start of the domestic campaign, but it was hardly down to solid defending. Despite winning 3-0 against Dijon on the opening day, although they impressed going forward, Marseille were very lucky not to concede, particularly early in the game. Much of the same can be said about their 1-0 win over Nantes the time after that. They did then of course concede last week in Slovenia and were once again unable to keep a clean sheet against Angers at the weekend. With the attacking players in their ranks, there are few doubts about Marseille going forward and they should have more than enough in the way of firepower to come out on top here, but you probably wouldn’t bank on them doing so without conceding.
Domzale will be uplifted by the fact that they threatened going forward last week and, although this match is away from home, should fancy their chances of doing so again. Quite simply, the Slovenians have nothing to lose and can be expected to get on the attack sooner or later. On top of this, the visitors come into this match with a promising scoring record in this competition having found the net at least once in 12 of their last 15 Europa League matches. However, they’ve kept a clean sheet in just four of those.
All things considered, back on their own patch, Marseille can be expected to come out on top; however, punters are urged to back them to be victorious without keeping the visitors out. This attack-minded team look strong in the final third but have already begun making a habit of allowing their opposition chances and so it would be no surprise if they were to concede at least one more on their way to the Europa League proper.
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