Belotti is injured again, fortunately not because of the recurrence of the old ligament injury in his knee, but it was also a twist on his ankle in training on Tuesday, and he will definitely miss the game in two days' time. This news dealt a big blow to the Red Bulls, who are sharpening their knives and preparing to make gains in the European competition.

As of the quarter-finals, Red Babe is tied for the top scorer with Athletic Bilbao striker Aduris with 11 goals (three of the player's goals have been scored in the play-offs, so the Torino No.9 is the top scorer in the tournament alone), which can be said to be a big weapon for the team. His absence due to injury is undoubtedly a huge loss for the Torino team, and it also completely disrupts Li Mudi's previous arrangements and deployments, which is a headache at best.

The Torino boss had already lined up his starting line-up for the next few games ahead of last week's midweek game against AC Milan, and it was the focus on Marseille that led to the weekend away at Atalanta that he had two Italian international strikers out and Manuel Pellegri playing the full game for the first time this season with a fitness rating of 12.

However, Belotti's unexpected injury has led to the team currently only having a full-fledged striker in Immobile to use, judging from Pellegrei's physical fitness that still needs to be improved, his physical fitness will be restored to 80% at most before Thursday's game, and it is not a big problem to play for about half an hour on the bench, and the starting game is half a goal, which makes Li Mudi's long-planned two-striker tactics directly aborted.

A temporary change in tactics will naturally make the Red Bulls players perform somewhat unsatisfactory on the court, which is the main reason why they can only get one defeat on the road.

At 21:05 p.m. on April 26, the two first-leg matches of the 2017-18 Europa League semi-finals kicked off at the Stade Velodrome and the Emirates Stadium at the same time, and the four teams battled it out for a ticket to the final at the Parc Olimpico in Lyon.

Leaving aside the powerful dialogue in the British capital, just look at the matchup that began in France's second-largest city, where the 67,394-seat Marseille home stadium reached 95% attendance tonight, a three-year high. As many as 34 countries will broadcast the game live, and the attention in the world is beyond many people's expectations.

The visiting Torino team fielded a more defensive 4-2-3-1 formation, starting goalkeeper Iker Casillas, four defenders Silvestri, Ranocchia, Diego Llorente and Barreca, Vukocevic and Baseli in the back, Benassi up front, two wingers in front of Farke and Boyer, and central striker Immobile. This is a common style of play that Li Mudi used last season, which can get more possession than the 3-5-2 position, but the physical consumption of the players is greater, and the pressure on the opponent's defensive line is slightly reduced.

The home team's homegrown coach Rudy Garcia also used his best 4-2-3-1 to form a mirror effect with the Red Bulls, and most of the main players, including captain Payet, all started the game, except for veteran goalkeeper Mandanda, who unfortunately suffered a muscle tear injury and will miss until the beginning of May, and it is still unknown whether he will be able to catch the second leg.

And with the whistle of the referee on duty, Scotsman Willy Colum, the Marseille team who won the kick-off launched the first wave of attack, and the attitude of wanting to win at home was clearly revealed.

Marseille are unbeaten in six European matches played at the stadium this season, with only the rising Red Bull Salzburg able to pull off the Velodrome Stadium, while other teams from the top five leagues such as Athletic Bilbao and RB Leipzig have been defeated on the pitch. In the last round, in the face of a small defeat by one goal away from home, Marseille slaughtered the fourth place in the Bundesliga 5-2 in the second leg of the duel back home, which really makes it impossible to underestimate its fighting power when playing at home.

Therefore, in the absence of his main scorer, Li Mudi did not choose to attack the opponent, but more safely used ball control and counterattack to deal with the opponent's super home advantage. However, it also gave the Marseille players the opportunity to take advantage of the physical advantage to keep the pressure on the visitors, and with more than 60,000 home fans frantically cheering them on, Torino fell into passivity in the opening stages.

In the second minute, Boyer brought down Marseille centre-back Maxime Lopes on the way back and gave them a free-kick in the middle, which Payet cleverly slotted into the box. Greek centre-forward Mitroglou shook off the defender and fired a low shot from the right side of the penalty area into the far corner, but Casey reacted in time to block the ball with a sideways pounce, and the assistant referee raised the flag to signal offside, which made the visitors a little dissatisfied.

After that, the red bull tried to use the pass control to burn the fire of war to the danger zone of the opponent several times, but they were all defused one by one. Boyer and Farke failed to play as planned on the flanks, and even with crosses or diagonal crosses, Immobile, who was being targeted, couldn't control the spot, and the visitors were a bit of a poor positional play.

In the 10th minute, Torino found a rare opportunity to counterattack, Vukocevic intercepted Payet's pass at the edge of the penalty area, Benassi dribbled to the midfield circle and sent a long pass, because Mobile was under the bag of two defenders to the left side of the box at high speed, and came to shoot fifteen or sixteen meters from the goal, but unfortunately failed to hit the target, hitting the side net on the outside of the post. Although the result of this attack was relatively average, the idea of Li Mudi's main counterattack has been very clearly revealed, so that the Marseille team, who are eager to score goals, has to make a key defensive arrangement.

On the other hand, Torino, who have a numerical advantage inside and outside the penalty area, have also limited the home team's attacking organization well, and Payet has an excellent set-piece skill and a very well-rounded technique, but is not a traditional playmaker. Under the intensive care of Vukocevic and Baseli, the Marseille captain failed to show his hard feet and strong impact in the first ten minutes of the game, and only passed a few through balls, but the effect was not good.

Another big threat point for the Marseille team, right winger Florian Towan, was also suppressed by Bareka, who rarely assisted today, and devoted most of his energy to the defensive end, and Boyer, who frequently returned to help the defense, and was forced into a situation of solitary play many times, and it was difficult to get in touch with his teammates.

However, what Li Mudi never expected was that it was these two players who were successfully limited by the netting he had set up to create a chance for the home team to score and almost disrupt the Torino team's plan to rush to the final.

In the fifteenth minute, Tovan suddenly played back to cut in, and the ill-prepared Bareka was easily shaken by the former with a change of direction, and Vukocevic, who was making up for the defense, stretched out his foot on the right side of the front of the penalty area and moved to the Marseille winger and gave the opponent a well-placed free kick. Although he is very jealous of Payet, who can always play the world wave, the foul location this time is relatively biased, and it is difficult to create too much threat to the experienced Cassie, so Li Mudi is not too worried.

Sure enough, Payet, who thought it would be too difficult to hit the goal directly, opted for a pass, and he used his free-kick ability, which is rated as 18 in the FM system, to accurately send the ball into the far end of the box, which not only went over the heads of all defenders, but also made it difficult for the Torino goalkeeper to attack, and the quality was indeed very high. However, the visitors' defensive attention at the back post was mostly distracted by the central defender Rami who suddenly pulled towards the middle, and Towan, who was inserted in the back, seized the opportunity to grab the point. He knocked on the door of the Red Bulls with a header just a metre from just a metre off the goal line with no distraction around him, giving Marseille a one-goal lead.

It was only when the referee blew the whistle that the goal was effective and the home fans cheered and celebrated, all the Torino players raised their arms with indignant faces, signaling that the opposing player had committed a handball foul first, and asked the referee to cancel the penalty just now.

Due to the distance and the interference of many players in front of the goal, Li Mudi and others on the sidelines did not see clearly what happened at that moment before, and the game screen displayed by the FM system in his brain was in the form of simple animations. But the Torino boss, who believed his players would not lie collectively about such a big matter, quickly joined in the protest, yelling at the referee in the stadium and walking towards the fourth official to raise his own doubts about the goal.

However, this season's Champions League and Europa League did not use the video assistant referee system, and the referee, linesman and baseline referee did not see the scene of handball by the French winger, so the verdict that the goal was valid was upheld, and the Torino team could only suffer this injustice.

Judging from the slow-motion replay provided by the game broadcaster later, the ball did hit Towan's left arm and bounced into the goal after trying to fly, which was undoubtedly a handball. But that didn't stop the fact that Marseille had already taken the lead in this matchup, and the Red Bulls were a bit out of luck.

Li Mudi, who was still humming "La Marseillaise" calmly before the game, was almost not suppressed at the moment, and some words with insulting words were almost bursting out. However, the incident on another field just woke him up, and finally returned to the sideline in front of his team's bench with a look on his face, and began to relieve the pressure on the players, so that they could forget the misjudgment as soon as possible and focus on the rest of the game.

Just a few minutes ago, the Torino boss received shocking news from the FM system that Atletico Madrid's Croatian right-back Fosariko had been sent off after just ten minutes for accumulating two yellow cards, while their manager Simeone had been sent off in the stands three minutes later for verbal abuse at the referee, Frenchman Tulpin. This unexpected situation directly led to the visiting Sheets Army falling into a comprehensive passivity, which made the balance of this game and even this round of semi-final matchups have a major shift, and Li Mudi naturally did not want to repeat the mistakes of Atletico Madrid, so he reluctantly endured.

And the psychology of the players on the field is easier to calm down, after all, the fierce game has just begun, once you put all your energy into fighting with the opponent, other thoughts will naturally be put aside temporarily. It's just that it's relatively difficult to get into that state, as the coach of the team, Li Mudi stood up at this critical moment, and stayed on the sidelines for the next ten minutes, reminding everyone to cheer up from time to time.

In the period after the score was rewritten, Marseille controlled most of the possession and launched wave after wave of onslaught towards the visitors' goal, hoping to further expand the results and lay a good foundation for promotion. Fortunately, the Torino team responded immediately, giving up the energy reserved for the counterattack, and recovering all of it into their own half, using their numerical advantage to resist the impact of the opponent.

That led to the home side's first attempt after the goal, which didn't come until the 24th minute, when French centre-back Morgan Sanson's barely long-range shot from 25 yards out went wide of the post, showing that the Red Bulls were truly impressive defensively today.

As time passed, when the game gradually went on to 334 minutes, the strong attack of the Marseille team was finally unsustainable, and the Torino players basically reduced the impact of the conceded goal to a minimum, and the tactics arranged by Li Mudi before the game were realized. With better possession, the visitors began to take over control of the ball, and before half-time, in addition to leveling the previous difference in possession between the two sides, the number of shots on goal between the two teams was infinitely close, and looking at the shooting statistics, it was the slightly more efficient Immobile and others who did it better.

The 35-year-old goalkeeper John Bailey, who replaced Mandanda, was in great form today, not only saving the visitors' three hits in the first half, but also blocking Benathy's dangerous shot in the penalty area just six minutes after the rematch, trying to keep his own goal and making a very outstanding contribution to the team.

The veteran Spanish player who was across the field from him, Casillas, was also uncompromising, and in the 63rd minute, he struggled to block Cameroonian Clinton Nje's inevitable close-range push, and did not let the Torino goal concede again, avoiding the team's return to home with two goals down.

In the 76th minute, the score was almost rewritten again, when Bareka crossed diagonally from the left side of the box, and substitute striker Manuel Pellegri hit a brilliant volley, but the ball went over the home goalkeeper's ten fingers and was intercepted by the post, and the Red Bulls unfortunately missed the goal.

In the end, in a less than exciting matchup, the home team Marseille defeated the visiting Torino team 1-0 with a highly controversial goal, and temporarily took half a position in front of the opponent in the battle for a place in the final. However, this point difference is still very variable in the current situation where the three-goal lead is not guaranteed to advance, and at the same time, all the suspense is reserved for the Turin Olympic Stadium a week later.

It was only for the goal created by the handball and the scale of the referee on duty that the Torino club and the Italian media both made strong criticisms after the game, coupled with the many controversial incidents in the first leg of the meeting between Arsenal and Atletico Madrid, which made the two European matches the focus of attention in world football in the following days, and various related reports emerged one after another, which made people feel a little dizzying.