February 23, (THEWILL) – Marseille sealed their place in the Europa League last-16 on Thursday night, after second-half goals from Ismaila Sarr and Geoffrey Kondogbia, gave the French side a 5-3 aggregate victory over Shakhtar Donetsk.
The win marked an important response for Marseille following the recent sacking of manager, Gennaro Gattuso, due to a run of seven matches without a victory across all competitions. With Marseille’s recent struggles, it was Shakhtar who started brightly, taking an early lead through Georgiy Sudakov’s 12th minute penalty after Jonathan Clauss brought down Eguinaldo in the area.
However, Marseille found an equaliser against the run of play in the 23rd minute, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang netting to become the Europa League’s record goal scorer.
The second half saw Marseille take control, with Sarr finally giving them the lead in the 74th minute courtesy of a clever flick on from Aubameyang. Kondogbia then sealed the result just seven minutes later, sweeping home at the back post after a defensive mix-up.
In need of two goals to force extra time, Shakhtar threw everyone forward late on but struggled to break down a resolute Marseille defence. The win books the French side’s place in Friday’s last-16 draw. It also marked an impressive start for new manager, Jean-Louis Gasset.
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.
