May 3, (THEWILL) - Olympique de Marseille and Atalanta BC shared the spoils in this fascinating UEFA Europa League semi-final first leg at the Stade Velodrome, as Gian Piero Gasperini's side extended their unbeaten away run in this competition to nine matches.
Marseille came into this last-four clash with a 100% record of progressing from three previous Europa League and UEFA Cup semi-final appearances, but they faced a La Dea side in a buoyant mood after winning each of their last three games and having already dumped out Liverpool in the quarter-finals.
Gasperini's charges were aiming to create more history and took only 11 minutes to break the deadlock through Gianluca Scamacca. He netted his 16th goal of the season in all competitions by bringing a brilliant Teun Koopmeiners pass under control before unleashing a clinical finish past Pau Lopez. The hosts were back on level terms nine minutes later though, as Chancel Mbemba curled in a superb long-range strike off the inside of the post at the end of a superbly-worked short corner from the right-hand side.
Atalanta were having to withstand a sustained spell of pressure from the hosts, with Matteo Ruggeri blocking Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's effort from Jordan Veretout's corner. Aubameyang came even closer to adding his name to the scoresheet with half-time approaching, but the Europa League's all-time top scorer with 34 goals agonisingly missed out on his 35th after dragging an angled shot wide at the end of a swift counter-attack.
Jean-Louis Gasset's side pressed forward in search of a second after the restart, and Mbemba looked to make Juan Musso pay for a poor punched clearance, but his diving header sailed over the bar. Skipper Geoffrey Kondogbia then tried his luck with a side-footed attempt that narrowly missed the target. Gasperini freshened up Atalanta's forward line by withdrawing Scammacca for Ademola Lookman, who almost made the desired impact with a curling strike that curled just past the post. There were no other goals until the final whistle.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.