Marseille are clearly keen to win their first continental trophy in fifteen years, and for that reason they also hid a number of key players in their home league last weekend in hopes of being in better shape for the second leg of the semi-final against Torino.

The absence of a number of big players has also led to a 1-1 draw on the road against Angers, who are only five points above the relegation zone, as they need to compete for a top-three finish in the league to secure a Champions League place next season. Monaco, who were only one point more than Marseille before the start of the game, only got one point from Amiens in this round of home upset, which also caused Heme to miss the perfect opportunity to overtake their opponents.

After 35 rounds of Ligue 1 matches, it is needless to mention that Grand Paris, who won the championship in advance, jumped to second place in the standings with 72 points with a victory, followed by Monaco with 71 points and Marseille with 70 points. In the fierce competition of "three players win two peach", the team that is distracted by European competition is obviously in a disadvantageous situation. Fortunately, Rudy Garcia's side have another option, as long as they win the Europa League, everything will be fine, not only will they be able to win an important honour, but they will also be able to qualify for next season's Champions League, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.

So the French team left for Italy early and agreed with Juventus to loan the latter's driving range for acclimatisation, all in order to be able to play well on Thursday night and get a result that they are happy with.

It's just that on the European continent and even in the world, the influence of the Europa League is obviously far less than that of the Champions League, so before the Liverpool players go to the Stadio Olimpico in Rome for their final practice on the field, apart from the French media, not many people pay attention to the state of the Marseille players.

On Tuesday night, Real Madrid faced old rivals Bayern Munich at the Bernabeu, and Zizou's team still couldn't shake off the slump in the first leg, and they were pressed to the ground by the Bundesliga hegemon. It's just that the German homegrown goalkeeper Ulreich, who started in place of the injured Neuer, and the French midfielder Tolisso, who appeared in the starting lineup because Robben could not recover from injury in time, these two "stand-ins" worked together to send a big gift to the Galaxy Battleship, allowing Benzema to pick up the leak and push the empty goal, which directly led to a serious setback in Bayern's morale.

In the end, the possession rate and shooting statistics of 60% of the whole game were far ahead of the opponent's 3-of-9 with 10 of 22, and the opponent was 3 of 9, and repeatedly missed good opportunities to score the winning goal, and finally failed to turn the tables around. Defending champions Real Madrid secured a 2-2 draw on their home turf and eliminated Bayern Munich 4-3 on aggregate to reach the Champions League final for the third year in a row, leaving them just one final step away from their treble of titles.

The other semi-final on Wednesday once again gave fans a taste of the charm of football, far more exciting than the famous European derby.

The Reds, who won 5-2 in the first leg, did not choose to be conservative on the road, starting the front three that have been assembled this season and struck a goal from Senegalese winger Sadio Mane in the opening ten minutes with a sharp counter-attack. Roma pulled one back with a bizarre own goal from Milner, but Dutch midfielder Wijnaldum scored in the 25th minute to give Liverpudlian a second away goal, thus erasing the statistics of both sides in this regard. The Red Wolves will have to score at least four more goals if they want to meet Real Madrid in the final in Kiev and make sure they don't miss the net again, which is much more difficult than they did in their quarter-final win over Barcelona.

When Dzeko scored a goal in the first seven minutes of the second half, there was some optimism among Italian fans about the hope of a comeback, but when the game came to the 85th minute, the score remained 2-2, and it was believed that even the most loyal Roma supporters would not be happy.

It's just that the sudden changes on the pitch are often so dramatic, and Nainggran's dedication in the 86th minute and a wonderful long-range shot from the world wave gave the Red Wolves another glimmer of hope. In the following game time, the home team launched the most fierce attack on the opponent's goal, but never had the chance to score again. It wasn't until the third minute of stoppage time that substitute Werder burst into the box and smashed the ball into the hands of Estonian defender Kravan, and the referee decisively awarded a penalty. Nainggran made it 4-2 and 6-7 on aggregate, leaving Roma just one goal away from escaping.

However, there was not much time left for them to make their last ditch, and in the successive passes after the Liverpool players kicked off, the game and this set of duels still ushered in the final whistle. The Reds have qualified for the Champions League final again after 11 years, while Roma, the biggest dark horse in European competition this season, have unfortunately fallen to the threshold of the semi-finals and failed to reach the final stage of the world's highest club competition for the second time. In the 1983-84 Champions League final, Liverpool won the fourth Big Eared Cup in the team's history by beating Roma 5-3 on penalties, and the Reds won the third title against Real Madrid.

These two world-class European giants have been around for more than 100 years, but the history of their encounters is shockingly simple. Not counting this season's Champions League final, which will start on the evening of the 26th, the two teams have only met five times in official matches, which is a bit incredible.

In addition to the 1981 Champions League final, the second meeting between the two sides was the 2008-09 Champions League quarterfinals, when Real Madrid, who was in the "Dream Eight" stage, was unsurprisingly killed by the Reds home and away, and Anfield's 4-0 made everyone at that time see the decline of the Galaxy Battleship, which was embarrassing.

It's just that feng shui takes turns, and five years later, the two teams met again in the group stage, but this time it was the Spanish giants who had the advantage. 3-0 and 1-0, Real Madrid announced the strong recovery of the Champions League winners with two clean clean wins, starting the hegemony of winning the Big Ear Cup three times in four years.

However, just as the stage for this year's final has been set up and everyone is beginning to think of the passionate clash between Cristiano Ronaldo and Egyptian star Salah, the Italian sports media have made a noise to list the various controversial penalties that arose in the Ronaldo-Leigh battle, aiming at the decision of the referee on duty, Slovenian Skomeina, and UEFA not to set up a VAR system in European competition.

In the first minute of the opening minute, Lovren changed the trajectory of the ball with his outstretched arm as he battled with Roma striker Schick in the box, and although it looked like an unintentional handball, it should have been a penalty in the eyes of the Italians, but Skamino did not make any indication at the time.

In the 49th minute of the second half, Roma played a delicate combination when Dzeko received a through ball from a team-mate and was brought down by the onrushing visiting goalkeeper Karius for an indisputable penalty. However, the referee ruled that the Bosnian striker was offside, and the slow motion of the broadcaster showed that it was a 100% miscalculation, and at the moment of Shaarawy's pass, not a single part of Dzeko's body was in front of the Liverpool defence, and the Red Wolves missed a golden opportunity to drag the game into extra-time.

However, the furiest of Roma fans was in the 64th minute, when Alexander-Arnold clearly blocked El Shaarawy's volley towards the empty goal with his hands in front of goal, but still did not receive the punishment he deserved. According to common sense, this is definitely a red card and penalty package, but the referee still easily let it go.

So the Italians quit, claiming that they had been hacked, and they posted insulting messages on UEFA's official forums to vent their frustrations. The AS Roma club generously congratulated the Reds on their promotion, while at the same time angrily slamming the referee's poor enforcement skills and calling for the introduction of VAR.

Red Wolves president Parlotta said in an interview: "It's very clear that VAR is absolutely needed in the Champions League because you can't let it just go. You can all see for yourself, Dzeko was not offside, his fall was a penalty. And that [Alexander-Arnold] handball I think people all over the world can see it, except for the guys on the field. I say it again, congratulations to Liverpool on qualifying, they are a great team. But if we don't introduce VAR in the Champions League, things like this are an absolute joke. ”

Roma director Monchi, team coach Di Francesco and even team member De Rossi and others are also reluctant to be eliminated with such a defense, and they have all expressed their desire to strengthen the referee's professional ability and use the video assistant referee system in public.

In the face of the Italians' aggressiveness, the British media naturally did not let their own team be burdened with the black pot of external factors to advance to the final, and they also gave examples of Mane being pushed down in the box and Salah breaking into the box when the ball hit Nainggran's arm to prove that it was not only the home side that did not get the penalty they deserved, Liverpool also lost a good chance to seal the victory early in the game.

It's just a war of words between the Italian and British media, but it was UEFA and the referees who were shot in the end, and the topic of whether VAR should be fully introduced into European competitions swept the entire European football scene in just a dozen hours, and even overshadowed the showdown between Real Madrid and Liverpool.

On Thursday evening, Li Mudi, who was on his way from the club's premises to the stadium for a pre-match press conference, was surrounded by a group of reporters as his car drove out of the gate. In response to a question from a reporter from Roma Sport, he reiterated his position, saying that even if it will disrupt the flow of some matches, the fairness of football should be strengthened, otherwise when the referee makes a major mistake, it will seriously hit the emotions of the victims, which is extremely detrimental to the development of the sport.

The Torino boss was a little too blunt in the first leg of the away game after a handball goal was misjudged, and his frustration with UEFA's inaction was exposed, and it was unclear if it would affect the evening's game.

At 20:05 on the evening of May 3, the second leg of the two Europa League semi-finals was played at the Wanda Metropolitano Stadium in Madrid and the Olympic Stadium in Turin at the same time. Of the four coaches, only the Atletico boss lifted the trophy in his first year in charge of the Sheets, the professor won the final in 2001, and the other two reached the last four of the competition for the first time in their coaching careers.

Considering that the scores of the two first-leg meetings are not huge, all four teams have a chance to make their own history, and all three teams except Atletico Madrid will win their first Europa League title in their history (including the UEFA Cup).

With the whistle of the bald referee Sergei Karashov from Russia, the rematch between Torino and Marseille officially began, and the eyes of the Italian, French and Celestial sports circles and fans were immediately locked on this match, hoping that their team would qualify for the tournament and that the match would not be repeated.

The home team surprised their fans immediately after the opening kick-off, as the Red Bulls, who had the strongest starting line-up of the moment, immediately launched a counter-attack after intercepting the opposition's first wave of tentative attacks, and Benasi's diagonal pass gave Immobile a chance to sprint. The latter sent in a cross from the left and the flanked Belotti pushed past Brazilian defender Gustavo at centre-back to head a powerful header.

Marseille goalkeeper John Bailey didn't react, but Red Babe was a little unlucky, and the ball almost grazed the top edge of the crossbar and flew off the line, drawing loud sighs from the fans in the stadium.

Returning to the center of the field, Li Mudi once again offered his favorite 3-5-2 formation, Casillas, Diego Llorente, Ranocchia, Canneman, Silvestri, Baseli, Benasi, Vukovievic, Barreka, Immobile and Belotti and other eleven players are his biggest reliance on the comeback.

Away from Marseille, the team has adopted an unchanging strategy, with Rudy Garcia fielding the exact same starter as he did in the first leg a week ago, believing that this set-up that has been battered by a number of strong opponents can explode in extreme situations, and he will not hesitate to sacrifice his league results at the weekend to hide these main players.

However, the advantage of a narrow home win obviously does not guarantee that the French side will qualify for the final, and the emergence of many big comebacks this season has made it difficult for every team to really relax in the first leg, and the strategic intention of the Marseille team today is also very obvious, which is to fight for a valuable away goal. This would deal a major blow to the morale of the Red Bulls, otherwise it would be difficult for the opponent to regain the initiative once the Torino team, which had a fierce offensive firepower, went crazy.

So in the first 20 minutes of the opening game, the two sides actually launched a fierce offensive battle, which made many professionals who predicted that the game would evolve into a home team besieging the away team felt that their cheeks were pumped and painful, so embarrassing!