Marseille overcomes Leipzig in pulsating tie to reach final four

RB Leipzig's 1-0 head start going into Thursday's second leg in Marseille was quashed by a thrilling 5-2 win for the host at the Stade Velodrome.

The result grants the Ligue 1 club entry into the semi-finals of the Europa League, and stirs memories of Marseille's Champions League triumph in 1992-93.

Dimitri Payet starred in the capture of a 5-3 aggregate victory. He was denied a lush goal in the opening stanza when Kostas Mitroglou was adjudged to have fouled an opponent off the ball, but the 31-year-old spread accurate passes all over the park throughout the match, teed up Florian Thauvin for a 38th-minute finish, and scored a beauty of his own on the hour.

The locals were shaken just two minutes into the clash when Bruma opportunistically latched onto a free ball to find Yohann Pele's bottom corner. Marseille fired back via a scrappy Stefan Ilsanker own goal and a smash from Bouna Sarr after Peter Gulacsi parried two Morgan Sanson shots.

Three goals had been scored within the first nine minutes.

Thauvin tapped home Payet's free-kick seven minutes before the interval, before Jean-Kevin Augustin, a product of Marseille's Classique rival Paris Saint-Germain, put Leipzig ahead on the away-goal rule 10 minutes into the second period.

Marseille regained its advantage when Payet responded just four minutes later, and manager Rudi Garcia could breathe a sigh of relief when Hiroki Sakai tapped into an empty net deep into injury time after Leipzig had poured its ranks upfield.

The Cote d'Azur outfit will face either Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, or Salzburg in the competition's semi-finals. The draw will be conducted in Nyon, Switzerland on Friday.