Marseille booked their place in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday despite suffering a 2-1 defeat away at Inter Milan.
Brandao's away goal dashes Inter's European dreams
Marseille booked their place in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday despite suffering a 2-1 defeat away at Inter Milan.
A thrilling finish to a largely disappointing contest saw the French side progress to the next stage, with Brandao stepping off the bench to grab a priceless away goal - to add to the 1-0 win they secured in the first leg.
Diego Milito had restored parity, and Giampaolo Pazzini converted a late spot kick, but Inter must now focus their attention on clawing their way back into Serie A's top four.
Inter had the better of the chances in the first half at Giuseppe Meazza, but were forced to wait until the 75th minute before forcing a breakthrough.
Marseille failed to clear their lines at a corner and Milito was in the right place at the right time to fire home from close range.
It appeared as though the game was heading for extra-time as the clock ticked past the 90-minute mark, but a dramatic period of stoppage-time saw the tide turn in Marseille's favour.
Brandao collected a long punt forward from Steve Mandanda to lash past Julio Cesar, meaning a red card for the Marseille keeper in the final moments and a successful spot-kick from Pazzini counted for little.
Confidence
Marseille had an early chance to all but kill Inter's hopes as Mathieu Valbuena shot dangerously on the turn, but saw the ball go narrowly wide.
Instead it was Inter who wasted golden chances as they showed all the signs of a team short on confidence.
Javier Zanetti ran brilliantly to the byline, and his cut-back was deflected by Souleymane Diawara perfectly into the path of Wesley Sneijder, but as the whole stadium expected the see the net bulge, the Dutchman's shot hit Diawara and found its way to Mandanda.
Milito then had an even easier chance moments later as he broke clear to meet Dejan Stankovic's cross just feet from goal, but the Argentinian inexplicably tried to chest it in and sent the ball straight into the goalkeeper's waiting arms.
At the other end, Cesar Azpilicueta's long looping cross found Andre Ayew at the far post, but his header, lacking power, went narrowly wide.
After that sparkling start, the game largely went stale as move after move at either end finished with a series of misplaced passes.
Mandanda got across to keep out Sneijder's curling free-kick while Diego Forlan headed wide from Maicon's cross in the dying stages of the first half, but Inter had failed to show enough to suggest they could turn it around as they went in for the half-time break.
And the narrative barely swung in their favour during a poor start to the second half with few chances for either side.
Their task became harder just before the hour mark when Sneijder was withdrawn with a shake of the head, apparently suffering some kind of injury, while Pazzini replaced the largely ineffective Forlan.
Prodded
Stankovic sent a poor free-kick well over the crossbar from a good position as time continued to tick away.
Marseille could have killed Inter off in the 71st minute when Julio Cesar did well to get down and block Diawara's header on the line.
The breakthrough finally came 15 minutes from time, but it was far from pretty.
Marseille failed to clear a corner, and Walter Samuel prodded the ball back into the danger zone.
Pazzini somehow failed to finish from four yards, but when the ball came back to Milito he tucked it away from close range.
Inter poured forward in search of a winner, but Mandanda comfortably dealt with Maicon's free-kick, before the Brazilian sent another set-piece from a far better position wildly over the bar.
Extra-time looked a certainty, but Mandanda's huge punt upfield fell for Brandao, in somewhat unorthodox fashion off the striker's back, but it was enough for him to break free and rifle the ball past Cesar.
That should have been that, but Mandanda then brought down Pazzini in the area, earning a second caution and a dismissal after a yellow card for timewasting.
Pazzini lashed home the penalty, but it was the last kick of the game as Inter crashed out.
