⚽UEFA Europa League Discussion Thread -- 2021/22 Winners: Eintracht Frankfurt!

[Distraction]

The Champions League draw has ended and the next one is the Europa League draw. It is nearly starting and I'm very excited about it already now.

Seeded teams are: Rangers, Real Sociedad, Napoli, Olympiacos, Lazio, Braga, Betis, Dinamo Zagreb
Unseeded teams are: Leipzig, Porto, Dortmund, Sheriff, Barcelona, Atalanta, Sevilla, Zenit

Dortmund and Barcelona don't belong to this tournament normally but they had no other choice. Their inadequate efforts brought them to this point. From now on, it is up to them whether they would fight for reaching the title.

[Swordsoffreedom]

Dortmund and Barcelona don't belong to this tournament normally but they had no other choice. Their inadequate efforts brought them to this point. From now on, it is up to them whether they would fight for reaching the title.

More important than whether Barcelona will fight for the title is whether they have the quality to win the Europa League title. Looking at their team, gameplay and strategy I don't think they deserve to win my Europa League title. Dortmund, Atalanta and Napoli are much stronger than Barcelona. Dortmund is more likely to win the title.

[Kitaiev]

Barcelona - Napoli this is a pair worthy of the Champions League! Here's what I will definitely watch.
The big question is how much Barcelona will try to win this tournament, but I don't think they will give up without a fight.

[ElmasKafa]

And the draw has been completed!

Sevilla - Dinamo Zagreb
Atalanta - Olympiacos
Leipzig - Real Sociedad
Barcelona - Napoli
Zenit - Betis
Dortmund - Rangers
Sheriff - Braga
Porto - Lazio

Barcelona - Napoli and Porto - Lazio draws are most attention getting ones for me. And my picks for those draws are Napoli and Lazio. Barcelona are still not performing well now. And if they keep this up, they won't be able to defeat Napoli most probably. And Lazio seem to be better than Porto for me but it is still a very close draw.

[onecall123]

Barcelona - Napoli this is a pair worthy of the Champions League! Here's what I will definitely watch.
The big question is how much Barcelona will try to win this tournament, but I don't think they will give up without a fight.

A fight can at least test their abilities since losing and winning are part of the game. Barça will play Napoli in the Europa League. I am a Barcelona fan, always have been, but I am also realistic. I still expect Napoli to beat Barcelona. If Xavi wins, his appointment will be seen as a masterstroke. If Barcelona does not finish in the top 4, which seems highly likely, it will be even more monumental. We will see what happens. Let's pray and hope for the best.

[cryptofrka]

A really tough draw for Dinamo - but this was expected. Most of the teams they could have gotten would have been considered as huge favorites anyway.

Barcelona - Napoli is the biggest game on paper of course, but Leipzig - Sociedad and Porto - Lazio look interesting as well.

When will these games be played? Usually the Euro competitions resumed in February, but this round is now in between the regular schedule.

[skscengeng]

Especially the Barcelona - Napoli draw makes me excited more. There is around a two-month time period until the first games to start. This is a long enough time period for Barcelona to pull themselves together I suppose. Xavi needs to work really hard with the players and get them ready for the Europa League games also. But if they only focus on La Liga, then Napoli would do the same Benfica did to Barcelona in the group stage. 

[bering]

Barcelona will facing strong opponent this time and their previous records during met Italian teams on Europe competitions also quite bad because last time they were lost against Juventus and moreover team condition not in the good shape after defeated by Bayern several days ago but i'm curious to watching their performance against Napoli whether they can able to win or not

[tyz]

A top match has been drawn, which could have been Europa League final. Barca against Napoli will certainly be a top-class match. For me, both teams are favorites for the title.
I think that either Dortmund, Napoli or FC Porto have the best chances to win the title. Then follows Barca and Sevilla. Especially Sevilla should never be underestimated in this Cup.

[EdenHazard]

Especially the Barcelona - Napoli draw makes me excited more. There is around a two-month time period until the first games to start. This is a long enough time period for Barcelona to pull themselves together I suppose. Xavi needs to work really hard with the players and get them ready for the Europa League games also. But if they only focus on La Liga, then Napoli would do the same Benfica did to Barcelona in the group stage. 

If the match held in next few weeks i guess we have the winner already between barcelona vs napoli right?  

luckily there is sufficient time for barcelona to improve everything and get a title of the season at least rather than nothing .. as mathematically barcelona are out of la liga title race and this is one of the prestigious one that they could reach.
interesting draw though. i just wish sheriff tiraspol could bring us some entertainment through their unexpected crazy on fire performance.

[baeva]

I would agree here for sure. The English clubs really have a much tougher schedule than any other league in Europe. That's also why Jürgen Klopp frequently goes nuts when his players have to play two games in under 45 hours, sometimes even away games. I think that is too much and they have to control for the loads the players have to physically bear.

On that basis, the English league looks flawlessly interesting, and by the way I personally do not see how it affects the players, even with such a schedule they play well, but you can only say so if you do not know the inner workings so to speak, as they have everything in reality I do not know. I think Klopp is not the only one expressing dissatisfaction

I would say that players who play three to four times within 7 - 8 days are more prone to injuries than players who play only two times over the same timespan. Generally I agree with you that they shouldn't be complaining too much, but I see the disadvantage when you compete on the absolute highest level with Manchester City and Chelsea and your own team has an even tougher schedule than them with more rest, I think it does come potentially with negative effects.

You know, a top team has to live up to the prefix "top." Yes, it's unfair that other teams have more rest, but, sorry, they play much worse, I'm not talking about Manchester City and some other teams, I think they also have a very busy schedule at some points, I'm talking about others who are way below them in the table. They can complain all they want, and if their complaints are met, fine, but until that happens, there's nothing they can do

[LFC_Bitcoin]

What a mess by UEFA, utterly ridiculous. I was disappointed to not have the Salzburg tie as they’re the weakest team left in the competition maybe. Realistically though only PSG from the group runners up pot bothered me. Liverpool are levels above every other team we could have drawn so I will  take Inter no problem. They are only 1 point ahead of a pretty crappy Milan side in Serie A that we beat twice.

 

[Bohdan820]

As for me in this round this is the most interesting pair of Porto - Lazio because these teams are more equal and the outcome of this pair cannot be accurately predicted.
Both teams are doing high in their championships and both teams will want to win this trophy.

[LTU_btc]

Really good draw. With reduced number of teams quality of Eurpa league is high this season.
Barcelona - Napoli. Damn, what an opponent for Barca, I expected something easier. Seems that our journey in Europa league won't be long.
Sevilla - Dinamo Zagreb. Not bad draw for Sevilla. Don't understimate Zagreb, but it's Sevilla tournament and they should go further.
Atalanta - Olympiacos. Interesting pair. I would like to see Atalanta going far in Europa league.
Leipzig - Real Sociedad. Leipzig have bad season, Sociedad started well, but now they're going down. I expected that until February Leipzig will sort out things.
Zenit - Betis. I think it's more or less 50/50. But Zenit will play this game after long winter break, so, probably they won't be in optimal conditiion
Dortmund - Rangers. Rangers look good in Scotland, but it's not easy for them to compete in Europe. I don't see them going further.
Sheriff - Braga. Probably best opponent for Sheriff. It's possible for them to fight with Braga
Porto - Lazio. Sounds nice, IMO, Porto should go through, Lazio looks disappointing so far.

What a mess by UEFA, utterly ridiculous. I was disappointed to not have the Salzburg tie as they’re the weakest team left in the competition maybe. Realistically though only PSG from the group runners up pot bothered me. Liverpool are levels above every other team we could have drawn so I will  take Inter no problem. They are only 1 point ahead of a pretty crappy Milan side in Serie A that we beat twice.

 

Mate, you're in wrong thread

[Swordsoffreedom]

A top match has been drawn, which could have been Europa League final. Barca against Napoli will certainly be a top-class match. For me, both teams are favorites for the title.
I think that either Dortmund, Napoli or FC Porto have the best chances to win the title. Then follows Barca and Sevilla. Especially Sevilla should never be underestimated in this Cup.

Many people said that Barcelona would win the Europa League title after being eliminated from the Champions League. Their first match was against Napoli. And my guess is that Barcelona will be knocked out of the Europa League after losing to Napoli. Napoli are a very strong team. They have been at the top of Serie A for a long time. Barcelona will not be able to win against Napoli with such an unstable team.

[joker_josue]

Really good draw. With reduced number of teams quality of Eurpa league is high this season.

It's not a small number of teams. These are only the teams that will play the playoff for access to the round of 16.

The following teams are already qualified:

Crvena zvezda
Frankfurt
Galatasaray
Bayer Leverkusen
Lyon
Monaco
Spartak Moskva
West Ham

[cygan]

Barcelona will facing strong opponent this time and their previous records during met Italian teams on Europe competitions also quite bad because last time they were lost against Juventus and moreover team condition not in the good shape after defeated by Bayern several days ago but i'm curious to watching their performance against Napoli whether they can able to win or not

if it goes very badly for fc barcelona this year, then the probability of losing to napoli in the 1/8-final is high and that fcb will not be represented internationally at all next year is unfortunately also a given at the moment and possible in any case ... very difficult times for barcelona

[snipie]

Barcelona - Napoli this is a pair worthy of the Champions League! Here's what I will definitely watch.
The big question is how much Barcelona will try to win this tournament, but I don't think they will give up without a fight.

Both teams are fluctuating badly and they don't worth to be in CL this season imo but I understand your point and this match looks better than casual EL ones indeed
Depending from Napoli performance in the 2 matchday, Barcelona might say an early goodbye for EL too.
Leipzig - Sociedad, Porto - Lazio are good matches with unpredictable results tho

[jakdanyel]

After the draw has been completed successfully, I see that there are really tough matches like Barcelona v Napoli and Porto v Lazio. I guess that I wouldn't watch the rest of the matches but I'm thinking of watching the Barcelona v Napoli match especially. I'm not happy to say this but my favourite here to advance is Napoli absolutely. Because Barcelona are still struggling to defeat even easier opponents in their league. If they continue to perform like this, they would have a very low chance against Napoli in this draw.

[LTU_btc]

Really good draw. With reduced number of teams quality of Eurpa league is high this season.

It's not a small number of teams. These are only the teams that will play the playoff for access to the round of 16.

The following teams are already qualified:

Yeah I know that. I had in mind that total number of participants in Europa league was reduced from 48 to 32 teams this season and it was reason why competition level increased.