Olympique Marseille vs Atletico Madrid

Atletico Madrid return to the final of the tournament that kick-started Diego Simeones current reign of success  they won the Europa League in his first season in charge in 2012 and have fought as one of Europes top teams ever since, however they are trophyless since winning La Liga in 2014, struggling against the greater wealth of Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Marseille are obvious underdogs, without a trophy since the Coupe de la Ligue in 2012 and without a European trophy since their 1993 European Cup win in suspicious circumstances, but Rudi Garcia has built a good team, still within touching distance of a Champions League spot with a game still to play in Ligue 1, and had more support, far more Marseille fans making the three hour trip to Lyon than Atletico.

Simeone set out his team in a 4-4-2 formation, with Jan Oblak in goal, Sime Vrsaljko, Jose Gimenez, Diego Godin and Lucas Hernandez in defence, Angel Correa, Gabi, Saul Niguez and Koke in midfield and Antoine Griezmann supporting Diego Costa in attack.

Garcia chose a 4-2-3-1, with Steve Mandanda in goal, Bouna Sarr, Adil Rami, Luiz Gustavo and Jordan Amavi in defence, Morgan Sanson and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa screening them, and Florian Thauvin, Dimitri Payet and Lucas Ocampos supporting Valere Germain in attack.

The football took a while to start. Literally, as the pre-match festivities took a long time and had the players stood waiting in the tunnel, then also once the game started, with the opening ten minutes spent with the ball bouncing back and forth in the air as each teams midfielders took turns heading it forward or with it out of play, waiting for a throw-in or set-piece to be taken.

Eventually though Marseille settled on the ball and had the better of the game. Atletico like to sit back in two narrow banks of four and force their opponents wide, but this suited Marseille just fine as they like to send the ball wide to one of the wingers, having the full-backs overlap in an attempt to double up on the Atletico full-back before crossing the ball into the centre.

With this strategy Marseille kept Atletico pinned back into their own half, unable to construct proper attacks with only Griezmann and Costa forward, however, they also didnt threaten much. Their best opportunity came a few minutes into the match, catching Atleticos midfield high up the pitch for a throw-in and setting up Germain with some quick passes through the centre from the three attacking midfielders, but for the majority of the match, they were relying on crosses.

The winger on the opposite flank to whichever side the ball was being played down would tuck into the middle to offer another body in the box alongside Germain, but Atleticos defenders are big and strong in the air so they were able to defend the crosses easily. That was if Marseille even managed to send them in  even with the full-backs bombing forward in support, Atletico were able to quickly move players across whenever the ball went wide and outnumber Marseille in wide areas to stop the crosses. 

Even this early on, the game reached a strat