Marseille will host Lokomotiv Moscow for the Europa league group E fixture this Thursday at the Orange Vélodrome stadium with the hosts only a spot in the Europa conference league on the line. The two sides are placed at the bottom side in the group standings.
Jorge Sampaoli’s side are currently third in the section with four points to their name remaining winless in the stage and have lost once to Galatasaray on the penultimate matchday and now only the Conference League spot is what remains on offer for them.
Marseille had a wonderful start in the Ligue 1 campaign this season and are now placed third in the standings with 29 points, 2 points just below Rennes but a very big difference in points with PSG who are the top side in the league.
Olympique de Marseille’s 2-1 defeat at home to Stade Brest at the weekend came after back-to-back victories in Ligue 1 since they lost to Galatasaray in the UEFA Europa League group stage. Jorge Sampaoli should opt to make changes to the starting XI to avoid a defeat here and find the conference league spot.
Lokomotiv Moscow on the other hand are the bottom team in the standings with only 2 points having drawn against Marseille in the first leg and the top positioned Galatasaray. Lokomotiv Moscow recently lost their technical director, Ralf Rangnick, and have endured a really tough campaign thus far.
Markus Gisdol, 52-years-old, has only taken charge of 10 games for Lokomotiv Moscow, but the new manager bounce has now firmly worn off, as the Russian outfit head into Thursday’s game winless in six across all competitions.
Lokomotiv Moscow now come to this match on the back of a 1-0 home defeat to Ural Yekaterinburg which marked their fourth defeat across all tournaments as well as Their third successive loss in the Russian top flight.
Marseille vs Lokomotiv Moscow head to head
The last league meeting between the two was Europa League matchday 1 which ended in a low goal scoring draw. Lokomotiv Moscow haven’t won in their last 6 games and have lost 4 matches in a row.
- Lokomotiv Moscow 1-1 Marseille 16/09/21
Home
- Marseille 1-2 Stade Brest 29
- Nantes 0-1 Marseille
- Marseille 1-0 Troyes
- Galatasaray 4-2 Marseille
- Marseille 0-0 Metz
Away
- Lokomotiv Moscow 0-1 Ural Yekaterinburg
- Arsenal Tula 3-1 Lokomotiv Moscow
- Lokomotiv Moscow 0-3 Lazio
- Lokomotiv Moscow 1-2 Akhmat Grozny
- Spartak Moscow 1-1 Lokomotiv Moscow
Marseille team news
Marseille can boast a clean bill of health heading into Thursday’s game.
Lokomotiv team news
Dmitri Barinov will miss out on yellow cards. Alexis Beka Beka, Tino Anjorin, Anton Miranchuk, Rifat Zhemaletdinov, Stanislav Magkeev and Guilherme are on injuries. Dmitri Zhivoglyadov is Covid-19 positive.
Prediction and odds
- Marseille to win
- Goals over 2.5
- Both sides to score
