On yet another night of continental thrills and spills, Marseille and RB Leipzig unarguably provided the most topsy-turvy encounter by knocking out a ludicrous seven-goal bonanza at the Stade Velodrome.
The French side came into the game trailing 1-0 from the first leg but by ‘eck did they redress the balance in the second.
That said, L’OM’s night got off to a rotten old start when Bruma doubled Leipzig’s lead with less than two minutes played.
Not to be perturbed, Marseille came hurtling back from the brink and returned fire with a couple of goals in the 6th and 9th minute to put themselves 2-1 up on the night, before Florian Thauvin scored again to put them 3-2 up on aggregate at half-time.
However, just 10 minutes into the second half, Leipzig pulled one back and thus nudged ahead on away goals (3-3 overall) when Jean-Kevin Agustin pulled one back for the Germans.
Are you following this?
Not that it really matters, as you’re about to have your mind blown by a sumptuous finish from Dimitri Payet, which put Marseille 4-2 up on the night and 4-3 ahead overall.
This coming after Payet had seen an even more spectacular strike chalked off for a foul by teammate Kostas Mitroglou in the build-up.
How about this for a telling bit of trivia?
Since the start of last season Dimitri Payet is West Ham's second most creative player, despite leaving exactly 15 months ago
— Duncan Alexander (@oilysailor) April 12, 2018
Anyway, Marseille went onto ice the cake in the 94th minute when Hiroki Sakai rolled one into an empty Leipzig net (goalkeeper Peter Gulacsi had gone up for a corner) to cap off the action.
So, by our final count, that’s 5-2 to Marseille on the night and 5-3 to the Ligue 1 side on aggregate.
Phew. Bloody exhausting, isn’t it?