FK Qarabag vs Marseille Predictions

• At least three goals have been scored in five of the last six Marseille games.
• At least three goals have been scored in seven of the last eight Conference League games featuring Qarabag.
• Marseille have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last seven matches.

Too much doubt surrounds Marseille’s motives

There are too many imponderables about Marseille’s Europa Conference League trip to Azerbaijan to have confidence in them beating Qarabag at even money this Thursday. OM lead 3-1 from the first leg and were beaten at home by lowly Clermont Foot on Sunday ahead of their eight-hour flight east.

Jorge Sampaoli was scathing of his team’s display in the first leg, feeling they got away with a below-par performance there too. Since Alvaro Gonzalez refused to move in January, the South American tactician seems to have banished his most experienced defender to the bench and his side are not as assured at the back.

Sunday’s home defeat made it seven games without a clean sheet for Les Olympiens and this time their attackers couldn’t paper over the cracks. Thursday’s second leg could be quite an uncomfortable affair unless the French giants – one of the favourites to lift the inaugural Conference League title – rediscover their form.

Counter-attacking hosts can crack OM’s defence

Qarabag failed to beat the likes of FC Basel and Omonia Nicosia in earlier home group games, but they are a useful counter-attacking unit. The big question here, of course, is whether Marseille venture forward in the numbers required to give the hosts a chance of hitting them in their favourite manner.

Despite the uncertainty over that, we are still of a mind to back the hosts to score at least once in the game in a 2-1 defeat. OM have kept only one clean sheet in their last 14 European away ties.