With the European competitions back this week here’s Leonid with his feature article on who are the favourites for the Europa League.
Who are the favourites to win the Europa League?
The winners of the Europa League get a place in the Champions League next season and that has meant in England, Italy and Spain the competition has suddenly become serious again. That’s especially so in the latter stages of the competition where we are now.
I look at some of the potential winners and their upcoming round of 16 prospects.
Chelsea
With only Liverpool and Manchester City looking guaranteed to play Champions League football next season the Europa League is of significant importance to Chelsea and Maurizio Sarri’s future at the club with Arsenal, Spurs and Manchester United all competing for the 2 remaining spots. It is likely to be even more important if it Chelsea’s top 4 prospects diminish.
Chelsea are currently 6th in the premier league and 2 points behind Champions League qualification in 4th. Sarri, in the premier league, has generally used a small squad with predictable changes during games but it is likely he will have to widen his pool of players to compete on both fronts. That could see potential top scorer in the competition Oliver Giroud start in the knockout phases.
Chelsea easily won their group and got through the round of 32 against Malmo without too much bother. Chelsea are expected to advance over Dynamo Kyiv although they won’t have everything their own way as Kyiv impressively put out Olympiacos in the round of 32. They fairly easily topped their Europa League Group although they are 7 points behind Shakhtar Donetsk in their domestic league. A player to look out for is young winger Viktor Tsyhankov.
Napoli
One of Chelsea’s main threats and one of the favourites on https://www.betway.co.ke/sport/soccer will be Sarri’s former side Napoli. Napoli cruised through their round of 32 against Zurich 5-1 on aggregate. However they now have a relatively tricky tie against Group winners Red Bull Salzburg who comfortably dispatched Belgian side Club Brugge 5-2 on aggregate.
However Napoli have quality players in top European clubs centre back target Kalidou Koulibaly, midfield maestro Allan and winger Lorenzo Insigne. They currently sit second in Serie A, some 16 points behind runaway leaders Juventus.
Arsenal
Arsenal manager Unai Emery has won the Europa League 3 times with his former Club Sevilla and his team selection to date, even in some of the group games, showed that he is looking to win it again. Despite a supposedly easy round of 32 draw against Belarusian side Bate Borisov Arsenal somehow managed to lose the first leg and had a few dodgy moments before comfortably winning the 2nd leg 3-0.
Arsenal have the unfortunate problem of a suspended Lacazette for the 2 games against their opponents in the round of 16 Rennes. While it may look like an easy draw on paper it shouldn’t be forgotten that Rennes put out quality Spanish side Real Betis in the round of 32. New manager Stephan has them on a great run since taking over the reins. They have won 12 and lost 3 of their last 20 games. His first game saw them win 2-0 at Lyon who are 3rd in Ligue 1 behind Lille and runaway leaders PSG. They have quality in their squad with former Newcastle winger Hatem Ben Arfa and former Milan striker M’Baye Niang among their ranks.
Sevilla
Just to add to the list of formers we look at Unai Emery’s former Club Sevilla. They scraped through their group just as league winners but impressively advanced through the round of 32 against Lazio 3-0. They also have a fairly kind draw in the round of 16 against Slavia Prague. Currently sitting 6th in La Liga on a downward trend with 4 losses in their last 6 the Europa League will also look like an alternative option for a Champions League with Barcelona, Real Madrid and Athletico Madrid the favourites to take 3 of the 4 spots.
They do have some quality players though in French attacking midfielder and striker Wissam Ben Yedder and midfielder Pablo Sarabia
It’s going to be a fascinating competition to see if any of these clubs meet in the final in the Baku Olympic Stadium, Baku, Azerbaijan on May 29th.
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