Marseille, Atalanta tie in first leg of Europa League semifinal

Marseille's Europa League semi-final tie against Atalanta is finely poised going into the return after the teams drew 1-1 in Thursday's first leg in France.

Gianluca Scamacca gave Atalanta an early lead to silence a huge crowd at a packed Velodrome, but Chancel Mbemba quickly pulled Marseille level with a stunning strike from outside the box.

The draw means it will be all to play for in the second leg in Bergamo next Thursday, although Atalanta must be considered the favourites as they dream of reaching a European final for the first time in their history.

Marseille, who are appearing in their third European semi-final in seven years, have been much stronger in front of their own fans this season, with Paris Saint-Germain the only visiting team to beat them at the Velodrome over 90 minutes in any competition.

However, they have regularly struggled on their travels and just reaching the semi-finals was a fine achievement for a club who are outside the European places in Ligue 1 and are on their third coach of the campaign.

Atalanta stunned Liverpool in the quarter-finals after winning 3-0 in the first leg at Anfield, and they went ahead inside 11 minutes in the south of France.

They were still readjusting when Marseille equalised in the 20th minute.

(AFP)

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