Marseille 3-1 FC Copenhagen

Marseille cruised through to the last 16 of the Europa League after recording a convincing 6-2 aggregate victory over FC Copenhagen.

The French outfit had done most of the hard work in the first leg, where three late goals earned them a 3-1 win in Denmark, and they completed the job tonight with an identical scoreline to set up a showdown with Benfica in the next round.

Hatem Ben Arfa, who also struck in the first leg, broke the deadlock just before the interval at a blustery Stade Velodrome and Bakari Kone added two more goals in the final half-hour before Ailton netted a late effort for the visitors.

Marseille had lost three of their previous four European matches at home so there was always hope for Copenhagen, even though their coach Stale Solbakken rated his side's odds of progressing at "10 in 1000".

Copenhagen's slim hopes of an upset were almost ended inside 11 minutes as Marseille came within a whisker of going 4-1 up on aggregate.

Laurent Bonnart's cross from the right was well met by captain Benoit Cheyrou, whose glancing header flicked the top of the Copenhagen crossbar.

The visitors survived that time but, after going close themselves when the unmarked Dame Ndoye headed straight at Steve Mandanda, they were not so lucky two minutes before half-time as Marseille took the lead.

Bonnart was again the supplier, and although his cross was just too high for Cheyrou on this occasion, it found its way through to Ben Arfa beyond the far post and his half-volley fizzed through Johan Wiland's legs.

There was no way back for Copenhagen after that, although they refused to give up the fight.

Gronkjaer sent a rising shot just over at the start of the second half before Mathias Zanka Jorgensen almost capitalised on a Mandanda spill on the hour-mark.

However, a minute after that incident Marseille doubled their tally for the night through Kone.

Kone timed his run to perfection to stay onside as Taye Taiwo played the ball through, and the Ivory Coast international coolly rounded Wiland and walked the ball into an empty net.

Kone then added his second 13 minutes from time, superbly controlling Fabrice Abriel's cross before dinking his shot over the out-coming Wiland to make it 6-1 on aggregate.

Copenhagen got themselves a goal back in the 87th minute when substitute Ailton broke in behind the Marseille defence before sliding his shot past Mandanda, but it was nothing more than a consolation.