By Adegboyega Adeleye
Former Barcelona stars, Pierre Emerick Aubameyang and Ansu Fati have been included in the starting lineup for Marseille and Brighton respectively in Thursday’s Europa League fixture.
Brighton are hoping to bounce back from their loss in the opening match as they face Marseille in what is their first away match in Europe.
Brighton
Roberto De Zebri makes six changes to the side that lost 6-1 to Aston Villa in the Premier league on Saturday.
Barcelona loanee Ansu Fati, who scored the Seagulls’ solitary goal against Villa, starts, while Jan Paul van Hecke, Adam Webster, Tariq Lamptey, Pascal Gross and Mahmoud Dahoud are also included in the starting lineup.
Brighton XI: Steele; Veltman, Dunk, Van Hecke, Lamptey; Gross, Dahoud; Fati, Mitoma, March; Welbeck.
Subs: Verbruggen, Igor, Webster, Joao Pedro, Gilmour, Baleba, Adingra, Ferguson, McGill, Buonanotte, Hinshelwood.
Marseille
Former Arsenal, Barcelona, and Chelsea striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang leads the attack for Marseille.
Renan Lodi, who had a loan spell at Nottingham Forest last season, is on the bench alongside ex-Watford forward Ismaila Sarr.
Marseille XI: Pau Lopez, Clauss, Mbemba, Balerdi, Murillo, Rongier, Veretout, Ndiaye, Harit, Correa, Aubameyang.
Subs: Ngapandouetnbu, Ounahi, Vitor Oliveira, Renan Lodi, Meite, Sarr, Nadir, Blanco, Soglo, Tunkadi, Caprice
Westham vs Freiburg
Westham
David Moyes makes five changes to the West Ham side that defeated Sheffield United in the Premier League on Saturday.
Lukasz Fabianski, Konstantinos Mavropanos, Pablo Fornals, Mohammed Kudus and Thilo Kehrer have been included in the starting line-up.
Alphonse Areloa, Kurt Zouma, Emerson and Tomas Soucek are all benched.
Irons striker Michail Antonio is out with a tight adductor muscle and hasn’t flown to Germany.
West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Coufal, Mavropanos, Alvarez, Kehrer, Aguerd; Ward-Prowse, Paqueta, Fornals; Bowen, Kudus.
Subs: Areloa, Anang, Zouma, Cornet, Ings, Ogbonna, Benrahma, Soucek, Coventry, Emerson, Mubama.
Freiburg
Freiburg manager Christian Streich makes two changes to the team that beat Augsburg 2-0 in the Bundesliga on Sunday.
Nicolas Hoefler returns after serving a domestic suspension and replaces Yannick Keitel who misses out due to injury.
Junior Adamu also comes in for Ritsu Doan.
SC Freiburg XI: Atubolu; Sildillia, Ginter, Lienhart; Sallai, Eggestein, Hoefler, Kuebler; Adamu, Hoeler, Grifo.
Subs: Mueller, Uphoff, Schmidt, Gulde, Weisshaupt, Philipp, Makengo, Roehl, Ruedlin, Doan, Breunig.
Statistics
West Ham can set a new tally for the most European matches unbeaten by an English side when they play SC Freiburg in Germany.
They are currently 16 games without defeat, level with Pep Guardiola’s current Manchester City team, Don Revie’s Leeds in the 1960s and Bill Nicholson’s 1970s Tottenham side.
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