⚽UEFA Europa League Discussion Thread -- 2023/24 | SFs

[buwaytress]

But for sure that's my fantasy manager mentality.

United definitely feels like a timebomb I couldn't agree more. He has improved them all, won a trophy and now expectations are so heavy on people like Rashford.

I don't know, Liverpool holds the time bomb really and it ticked and blew over today just minutes ago.

United can't end this season badly. If they don't qualify in top 4, they weren't really expected to. They already won a trophy, and that's bought a lot of time for them. Rashford thrives on pressure, like all good talents. He'll be fine.

That said, I'm all for United losing every game possible heh.

[buwaytress]

Rooting for Arsenal all the way, they should be comfortable but if I know Arteta, he'll want them to keep momentum. I hear rumours of Jesus coming back finally, might be an opportunity for his to shake off some of the rust. Saka just spoke in an interview saying he'd want to play every single moment he can though

[execijutiere]

It is worth noting that Fenerbahce's odds are getting lower and lower and they are becoming the favorite. I think the worst case scenario is that the match will go to extra time. I'm thinking of a 2-0 scoreline but I'm not sure. It's a very important match and Fenerbahçe has the squad to eliminate Seville.
Arsenal will play at home this time and they are the advantageous side.The first match ended 2-2 away, but their opponents are not an easy opponent and they know that.I think Arsenal will win this match and go through the round. A goal-scoring encounter may be waiting for us again.

[LTU_btc]

Villarreal getting eliminated by Anderlecht is biggest upset. I saw them as serious contender to win trophy, but when you lose against Anderlecht at home, about what we can talk? Very solid AZ Alkmaar performance against Lazio nad deserved win.
So, I think now we have 4 contenders - West Ham, AZ, Fiorentina and Nice without clear favorite and draw tomorrow will be very big factor.

[Joca97]

Rooting for Arsenal all the way, they should be comfortable but if I know Arteta, he'll want them to keep momentum. I hear rumours of Jesus coming back finally, might be an opportunity for his to shake off some of the rust. Saka just spoke in an interview saying he'd want to play every single moment he can though

Arsenal just got eliminated by Sporting. Shocking result in London honestly,didnt expect that Sporting would pass Arsenal. I think that goal from the half of the field turned things into Sportings way and gaved them a boost in the penalties. Arsenal now has to focus on Premier league.

[casperBGD]

Rooting for Arsenal all the way, they should be comfortable but if I know Arteta, he'll want them to keep momentum. I hear rumours of Jesus coming back finally, might be an opportunity for his to shake off some of the rust. Saka just spoke in an interview saying he'd want to play every single moment he can though

Arsenal is out, but teams in QF are promising good next round, probably more fight than in CL, where there are some teams that are already seeing their way out (Inter, Milan)

United, Sevilla, Juventus, Sporting, Leverkusen, Roma are all trophy candidates, IMO, only Royale and Feyenoord chances are a bit lower, but Feyenoord has a really good season (weekend will have big decision on their season against Ajax)
wanted to see Fenerbahce in next round, but Sevilla is in EL on their playground

[slaman29]

United, Sevilla, Juventus, Sporting, Leverkusen, Roma are all trophy candidates, IMO, only Royale and Feyenoord chances are a bit lower, but Feyenoord has a really good season (weekend will have big decision on their season against Ajax)
wanted to see Fenerbahce in next round, but Sevilla is in EL on their playground

Imagine that just last year I would pick Sevilla and Juventus easily. I wouldn't even have put Arsenal in Last 16. But now the obvious favorite here is United, and they will probably try their best to make sure they have 2 trophies.

Sevilla loves this cup we all know that but I agree Feyenoord is also to eye, but they probably want to focus on Ajax and keeping their place?

[naira]

Rooting for Arsenal all the way, they should be comfortable but if I know Arteta, he'll want them to keep momentum. I hear rumours of Jesus coming back finally, might be an opportunity for his to shake off some of the rust. Saka just spoke in an interview saying he'd want to play every single moment he can though

Arsenal just got eliminated by Sporting. Shocking result in London honestly,didnt expect that Sporting would pass Arsenal. I think that goal from the half of the field turned things into Sportings way and gaved them a boost in the penalties. Arsenal now has to focus on Premier league.

Arsenal who are at the top of the Premier League standings can be eliminated by Sporting. The match was full of high intensity which made Arsenal have to shoot each other on penalties. The performance of the two teams until the extra round clashed strategies, at least Arsenal will focus more on the Premier League. Now the favorite club in the Europa League is Manchester United. The only Premier League representative who should be able to win a trophy this season. However, Erik Ten Hag's journey was not easy and Juventus and Roma were still the most dominant clubs as obstacles.

[Docnaster]

United, Sevilla, Juventus, Sporting, Leverkusen, Roma are all trophy candidates, IMO, only Royale and Feyenoord chances are a bit lower, but Feyenoord has a really good season (weekend will have big decision on their season against Ajax)
wanted to see Fenerbahce in next round, but Sevilla is in EL on their playground

Imagine that just last year I would pick Sevilla and Juventus easily. I wouldn't even have put Arsenal in Last 16. But now the obvious favorite here is United, and they will probably try their best to make sure they have 2 trophies.

Sevilla loves this cup we all know that but I agree Feyenoord is also to eye, but they probably want to focus on Ajax and keeping their place?

Looking at the remaining eight teams in the UEFA Europa League competition and without being sentimental, it's very obvious to every football fan that Manchester United is the favourite team to win the cup at the end of the season judging by every teams their general performances this season

But the fact that they'll have to eliminate Sevilla who is the most successful club in the competition to achieve their task should be major concern for the club. And Juventus who also performing very well this season is also in the same match-up with them

[LTU_btc]

That moment when MU have to travel to same city second round in a row and so far they faced only Spanish teams. As much as I would like to be wrong, I must admit that MU is main favorite now to win trophy. Europa league is Sevilla favorite tournamnet, but I doubt that they can make big problems for Red Devils.
Juventus - Sporting is 50/50 pair. And I got impression that in recent season Italian teams have lot of difficulties with Portuguese teams.
Feyenoord - Roma. Repeat of last season Conference league final. Now I would give advantage for Feyenoord, but you can't understimate Mourinho in knockout stages.
And Bayer - Union SG. Difficult to predict something here because you simply don't know what to expect from Union.

[casperBGD]

~snip
And Bayer - Union SG. Difficult to predict something here because you simply don't know what to expect from Union.

share thoughts on other pairs, but no matter I am Leverkusen fan, Union SG should be a favorite here
they kicked Union Berlin in last round, and Union is much better this season than Leverkusen, so should be easier for them (it is never easier, but one can draw conclusion based on previous results)

and Union SG is holding real good in Jupiler league as well, last season they were underdogs, now they are considered top team

[judas]

Arsenal were really trolling against Sporting in the rematch and they paid for their mistakes later on. I really didn't understand how Arsenal were that much bad in Emirates. In the end we watched them playing really effectively in Portugal and that just increased my expectation level from Arsenal. I was expecting to see a comfortable win for them honestly.

Instead they just struggled more than the first leg. After equalizing the score Sporting improved their self-confidence and this helped them even eliminate Arsenal. This was a big opportunity for Arsenal to win the Europa League title as they were having a really solid season. But they just turned it down.

[LTU_btc]

Still haven't decided which game I'm going to watch. Feyenoord - Roma, repeat of previous season Conference League final. Quite difficult to predict something here. Feyenoord is looking strong this season, probably going to win Eredivisie, Roma is doing well in Serie A and Mourinho know how to win UEFA cups. My prediction is BTTS today.
Bayer - Union. Bayer is heavy favourite, but probably it wouldn't be big surprise if Union will win, they already made some upsets.
Juventus - Sporting. 1.73 odds for Juve looks a bit weird. They didn't had easy life against Freiburg, while Sporting eliminated Arsenal after all.
And MU - Sevilla. As much I would like to be wrong, current Sevilla doesn't looks capable to make problems for MU. Odds for MU is too low, I'm going with over 2.5 goals here.

[tbct_mt2]

Still haven't decided which game I'm going to watch. Feyenoord - Roma, repeat of previous season Conference League final. Quite difficult to predict something here. Feyenoord is looking strong this season, probably going to win Eredivisie, Roma is doing well in Serie A and Mourinho know how to win UEFA cups. My prediction is BTTS today.

The earth is round and they will re-meet after only one season but at a highest level. From Conference League to Europa League is a good upgrade for those clubs.

I don't know about Feyenoord but AS Roma actually have good improvement in this season. They have Dybala who brings more creativeness for their attacking system and their defense system looks to be tighten more and better than in the past season. Roma will have to rely on Mourinho experience in knock-out matches to beat Feyenoord. Good news for them is AS Roma did not spend too much efforts to have a win in a last week match in Serie A. It helps them to have good preparation for a match with Feyenoord.

Bayer - Union. Bayer is heavy favourite, but probably it wouldn't be big surprise if Union will win, they already made some upsets.

I am unsure about this pair but Bayer actually had good form recently.

Juventus - Sporting. 1.73 odds for Juve looks a bit weird. They didn't had easy life against Freiburg, while Sporting eliminated Arsenal after all.

Juventus surely are stronger than Sporting and they can stop a dream of Sporting at quarter final round.

And MU - Sevilla. As much I would like to be wrong, current Sevilla doesn't looks capable to make problems for MU. Odds for MU is too low, I'm going with over 2.5 goals here.

This pair is a most interesting one as Sevilla can make all of us surprised by beating Manchester United and continue to protect their King reputation in Europa League. Manchester United just return to be a club with many problems recent weeks and it gives Sevilla more chances to beat United.

[Queentoshi]

I don't know about Feyenoord but AS Roma actually have good improvement in this season. They have Dybala who brings more creativeness for their attacking system and their defense system looks to be tighten more and better than in the past season. Roma will have to rely on Mourinho experience in knock-out matches to beat Feyenoord. Good news for them is AS Roma did not spend too much efforts to have a win in a last week match in Serie A. It helps them to have good preparation for a match with Feyenoord.

The game between Juventus and sporting CP will be a very interesting game to look out for, because Juventus only hope of winning a trophy this season is winning the European Cup, which is going to be a miracle for them, because they have been really poor this season, but I don't thinking is going be possible, Sporting CP has been very good this season, if they can be able to remove a team like Arsenal then I see every possibility of them qualifying ahead of Juventus, because when it comes to form this season they are far more better than the Juventus side at the moment.

[beerlover]

The game between Juventus and sporting CP will be a very interesting game to look out for, because Juventus only hope of winning a trophy this season is winning the European Cup, which is going to be a miracle for them, because they have been really poor this season, but I don't thinking is going be possible, Sporting CP has been very good this season, if they can be able to remove a team like Arsenal then I see every possibility of them qualifying ahead of Juventus, because when it comes to form this season they are far more better than the Juventus side at the moment.

Juventus will try their best but Lisbon is not the only team between them and the title. We still have United out there as well, and maybe Sevilla will win who knows but I think it is important to just see that Juventus is better than Sevilla, and United is better than them too.

So we should probably see a Juventus vs United soon, and that "should" be what happens, obviously Juventus could lose to Lisbon and United could lose to Sevilla and out of nowhere we could have a Sevilla vs Lisbon as well, we wouldn't really know. I know that it is not going to be something major, it should not be a big deal and maybe we could end up with whatever and still have fun as the people who watches the games, as long as you are not the fans of course.

[buwaytress]

I have to say it's plenty of big games here tonight, almost worthy of UCL fixtures all of them!

Not many games left to the end, and I think Feyenoord would very much like to put one leg in the door tonight, but Roma will feel equally certain about their abilities to make a statement away from home. Still scoreless as it stands... Roma disallowed goal, heh.

@LTU_btc Sporting's prize for knocking the favourite out is an Italian affair but I'll be watching Sevilla to see if they still call Europa their plaything. GL with over 2.5, I think it's a cool bet, I'm on Sevilla ML...

[execijutiere]

In the first match of the day, we watched Feyenoord-Roma.Neither team fought badly in this match, but there was no problem except that Feyenoord had a slight advantage as the home team.Towards the end of the first half, Roma won a penalty but could not take advantage of it.I have to say that Pellegrini could not close the first half ahead with his missed penalty.In the second half, the home team Feyenoord increased the pressure and scored in the first minutes and won the match 1-0.

[Frankolala]

Manchester united is playing a lovely football, I see that they are taking advantage of Sevilla weakness and critical state in this match. Sabitza scored the two goals in five minutes, with a good ball work from Martial. Martial's performance in this match is superb,I guess he has picked form.

Sevilla are trying their best to see that they can score at least one goal but it has been impossible for them because Manchester united defense is not easy for them to penetrate. Casemiro is playing with caution and he is also careful to make sure that he doesn't fall into the yellow card trap. It is clear that Sevilla is not fit to play Manchester united this season,even though that they are the league favourite.
Manchester united 2-0 Sevilla

[LTU_btc]

I can't believe what happened in MU - Sevilla game. When MU were leading 2:0, I thought it's over, turned off notifications on Flashscore and didn't come back to game until I saw final score of it. How it happened that MU score 2 own goals in final minutes of game? I didn't expected anyting from Sevilla, but now 2nd leg will be interesting.
Juve won game in their typical style and already common for them 1:0 score. Sporting were better, they had more chances.
Bayer didn't managed to beat Union, game ended 1:1. As I already said, probably it can't be called as big surprise. Wasn't able to watch Feyenoord - Roma game, from stats it looks like 50/50 game.
So, all 4 2nd leg games should be exciting, nothing isn't decided yet.