Brighton-Marseille is a match valid for the sixth day of the Europa League group stage and is played Thursday at 9 p.m.: TV, lineups, predictions.
It will be two teams coached by Italian coaches, Roberto De Zerbi and Gennaro Gattuso, dueling for the top spot in Group B, one of the most interesting of this edition.
An all blue-colored derby the one between Brighton and Marseille: at the top of the group standings are the French, a situation that allows the club led by the Calabrian coach to count on two results out of three in the English trip. Even a draw, to be more precise, would allow Marseille to stay ahead of the Seagulls and avoid the play-offs with the third-place finishers in the Champions League, which would mean having to play two more games at the turn of February and March to get into the round of 16. Brighton, on the other hand, cannot make any calculations if they want to leapfrog the Provençals in the standings: they would only succeed by winning. In any case, both are sure to have qualified for the knockout stage two weeks ago. For the English this is a historic achievement, at their first participation in a European competition.
Seagulls too patchy
The other side of the coin is that the strains of the double commitment in addition to filling the infirmary have caused Brighton to lose several points on the road in the league.
(Marseille players TheVeggente.it (Ansa)
Indeed, the Seagulls continue to be very inconsistent in the Premier League. Last Saturday they failed to give continuity to their midweek round win with Brentford, drawing 1-1 with newly promoted Burnley and wasting the opportunity to overtake Newcastle in seventh place. Continuity, on the other hand, seems to have been found by Marseille, which after its 4-3 success over Ajax on the last day of the Europa League scored three victories in a row in Ligue 1 (Rennes, Lyon, and Lorient), climbing to sixth place, -4 from the Champions League zone. The squad is always reduced to the bone for De Zerbi, who must do without Ansu Fati, Estupinan, Enciso, March, Webster and Welbeck. Fewer absences at Marseille: only Correa, Rongier and Pedro Ruiz will be missing from the roll call.
The Prediction
The first leg match last October ended in a pyrotechnic 2-2. This is no surprise considering the offensive mentality of the two coaches, who also clashed a few years ago in a heated double playoff final in Serie C when they sat on the benches of Pisa and Foggia. We expect an eventful match this time as well, with Brighton, unlike Marseille, having to play the game: a draw to the Seagulls is of no use. Slight preference for Marseille, which should score at least one goal against a re-staffed defense that has conceded so many goals in this first part of the season.
The likely Brighton-Marseille lineups
BRIGHTON (4-2-3-1): Steele; Veltman, Dunk, Igor, Hinshelwood; Gross, Gilmour; Adingra, Joao Pedro, Mitoma; Ferguson.
MARSEILLE (4-4-2): Pau Lopez; Clauss, Gigot, Mbemba, Renan Lodi; Sarr, Veretout, Ounahi, Harit; Ndiaye, Aubameyang.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-2
