Marseille vs PAOK Thessaloniki Predictions

• PAOK Thessaloniki have scored at least one goal for 9 consecutive matches.
• Olympique Marseille have scored at least one goal for 5 consecutive matches.
• Both teams have scored in all of the hosts previous five matches.

Spotlight on Marseille’s backline

Marseille will take part in their first European quarter-final appearance for four years when they welcome Greek outfit PAOK Salonika to the Stade Vélodrome on Thursday night. Their preparation for this tie could not have gone any better after claiming a 4-2 victory over Nantes in Ligue 1 at the weekend and it extends their run of wins to five matches in a row. Jorge Sampaoli’s side are one of the favourites to win the entire competition, but if they’re to guarantee passage to the next round they need to tighten up defensively as they’ve failed to keep a clean sheet on home soil since December.

This is somewhat unfamiliar territory for visitors PAOK who are in a last-eight tie of a European competition for the first time since 1974. However, they’re coming into this match off the back of a league defeat to Panathinaikos at the weekend and it saw their nine-game unbeaten run come to an end. They’re unbeaten in five of their last seven away matches across all competitions and they’ll be keen to expose this shakey Marseille backline and take the tie back to Greece with the advantage.

Both defences to be breached

It’d be easy to think that the hosts will have far too much quality for PAOK, but we think the Greek outfit can cause plenty of problems and they have no problems finding the back of the net, as evident by the fact that they have scored in all of their previous nine matches. We think that both teams will hit the back of the net here in what could possibly finish in a score draw.