Home » Europa League Quarterfinals 1st Leg Acca – 13th April
AccaNation.com aims to provide all users with safe, fair and regulated recommendations for which online gambling sites to use as well as fun predictions for accumulator bets. In the interest of transparency we'd like you to know that we are compensated for any traffic we send to online bookmakers.
Europa League Quarterfinals 1st Leg Acca – 13th April
Thursday night is Europa Night so the song goes for BT Sport’s coverage of the two Europa-themed competitions but out focus is on the four Europa League quarterfinal first leg ties that are taking place across Europe this week.
With a Champions League seeded spot on offer for the winners of the competition, there is real prestige in winning the Europa League nowadays and the changes to the competition and introduction of the Europa Conference League has improved the quality in this competition a great deal.
The first game of the night is the early kick off game between Dutch side Feyenoord and Jose Mourinho’s AS Roma and that should be a very closely fought contest indeed.
There are then three later games all of which kick off at 8pm, including Bayer Leverkusen, who have won all their last five games, taking on the in-form and surprise team of this tournament Union St Gilloise of Belgium. We also have Juventus hosting Sporting Lisbon and then Manchester United taking on the most successful team in this tournament’s history, Spanish side Sevilla.
The quality of these teams is such that five of the quarterfinalists have not lost in their last five games, while no team has lost more than two of their last five, which goes to show how much quality is left in this competition.
Given the quality, home advantage could well be key for the teams in both legs and as such, it is probably no surprise that I have gone for the home teams to win most of the games this week as you can see from my set of tips below.
Feyenoord are eight points ahead of Ajax and PSV in the Dutch League this season and have lost just once in the league all season long. They also put seven past Shakhtar Donetsk in the second leg of this tournament in the previous round, all of those goals coming before the 67th minute of the game. They won’t find Roma quite as accommodating as the Ukrainian side though with Jose Mourinho likely to drill into his side the importance of remaining in this tie ahead of the home leg next week. There have been six red cards in Roma’s last four games (Roma had two players sent off in the Rome derby) so discipline could be a problem but with Feyenoord in solid form, I think the Dutch side will land the win here.
Bayer Leverkusen v Union St Gilloise – Home Win
Xabi Alonso has seen his Leverkusen team win their last five games ahead of this tricky tie against Union St Gilloise. The Belgian side are chasing Genk hard for the title in Belgium closing the gap to three points with just three games remaining with Genk still to face Standard Liege and Anderlecht. However, it is fair to say that after beating German opponents in the last round in Union Berlin winning 3-0 at home after a 3-3 draw in Germany, they won’t be too fazed here. However, Bayer are hard to beat at home and after beating Monaco to get this far, I think they will push hard for the win to take into the second leg next week.
Juventus v Sporting Lisbon – Home Win
It has not been the best of seasons for Juventus, with a 15-point deduction in Serie A ruling them out of challenging for the title, and even a Champions League qualifier spot for next season is not on the cards as they are seven points off those positions with just 10 games to go. Therefore winning this trophy may be their best chance at Champions League football next season. The same could be said for Sporting who are off the pace in the Portuguese league but who have excelled in this competition, none more so when knocking out Arsenal in the last round. Juventus though I feel will have too much experience to succumb to that and I am backing the home side to land the win.
Manchester United v Sevilla – Draw
I am really surprised that Manchester United are the crash-hot favourites to win this game so comfortably. Sevilla have an outstanding record in this competition and are the most decorated team in its history. In that time they have beaten a number of English teams, some of them much fancied, and they have also got the better of Manchester United in the three games they have played, drawing in Seville in the Champions League before winning 2-1 at Old Trafford and then they beat United 201 in the 2020 Europa League Final. As such, I am not so convinced United will find this game as easy as the odds suggest, so I am going to go for a draw here.
Author: Dean Wyatt
Dean Wyatt is the founder and editor here at Acca Nation. He’s been betting sports for over 20 years and is a profitable sports trader on the exchanges.
League quarterfinal first leg ties that are taking place across Europe this week.
