Marseille beat Bilbao in Europa League clash

Marseille (France) March 9 (IANS) Olympique Marseille took a big step toward qualifying for the Europa League quarterfinals with a 3-1 victory over Athletic Bilbao in the first leg of their round of 16 tie here.

Thursday s match had barely begun when Athletic s Susaeta gave away the ball in midfield spurring a Marseille attack that resulted in a goal by Lucas Ocampos to make it 1-0 for the hosts just 44 seconds after the opening whistle reports Efe news agency.

Things got even worse for the visitors in the 14th minute when a poor clearance by Etxeita set up an easy goal by Dimitri Payet to double Marseille s advantage.

And over the next four minutes only the heroics of Athletic keeper Iago Herrerin kept his side from falling behind 4-0 as he denied Germain on successive occasions.

Aritz Aduriz had a chance to claw back a goal but put too much on the shot and the ball went well wide.

Just as it looked like half-time couldn t come soon enough for Athletic the referee awarded a penalty for a foul by Rami in first-half stoppage time and Aduriz - the leading scorer in the Europa League - stepped to the line and converted to cut the deficit to 2-1.

Bilbao did better at the start of the second period yet it was Marseille who scored the decisive next goal a rocket from Ocampos in the 57th minute to bring the score to 3-1.

--IANS
ajb/ksk