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Thursday’s Europa League Tips – 17th March
We’re back this week with our Thursday night Europa League acca and we are now onto the second legs of the Round of 16. Seven matches will see the seven winners progress into the quarterfinals where Red Bull Leipzig, who were given a bye after drawing Spartak Moscow, are already awaiting.
The draw for the next round of the tournament takes place on Friday, along with the Champions League and Europa Conference League quarterfinal draws and teams will also know who their semi-final opponents could be, depending on results.
Top performers in the first leg ties last week included Rangers, who earned a very impressive 3-0 win at Ibrox over Red Star Belgrade, while Braga also earned a very impressive 2-0 win over AS Monaco. Frankfurt’s 2-1 victory over Betis in Spain is also noteworthy as is Galatasaray’s 0-0 draw with Barcelona at the Nou Camp.
For English side West Ham the first leg ended in defeat as they went down 1-0 against Sevilla, while FC Porto lost to Lyon by the same scoreline at home, while Bayer Leverkusen were defeated 3-2 in Italy by Atalanta.
Most ties therefore have plenty to play for and I think that tends to make for more predictable games, even if it means one team has to be much more attack minded than they would usually be.
Here’s my tips for this weeks Europa League accumulator.
The first leg of this game was a cracker, with Atalanta coming from 1-0 down to lead 3-1 and then Leverkusen grabbing a goal back to set up an intriguing second leg at the BayArena. The German side have not been in the best of form of late and lost at home at the weekend, but they have drawn with Bayern Munich and beaten Dortmund on the road recently too, plus they are capable of scoring plenty of goals. Similarly, Atalanta can beat anybody on their day and don’t find goals a problem. I can see both teams scoring here and Leverkusen snatching a narrow win but I would not be surprised if extra time or even penalties is needed to decide the winner.
Red Star Belgrade (0) v (3) Rangers – Draw
Rangers produced a superb performance in the home leg to come away with a 3-0 win thanks to goals from Tavernier, Morelos and Balogun. Allan McGregor also played his part with a great penalty save which puts the Glasgow giants in a great position heading into the second leg. Belgrade have nothing to lose in front of their home fans and they can beat anybody at home on their day (ask Liverpool fans) but even if they can win this game, which I am not sure they can, they need a massive win in their favour to turn the tie around and I think Rangers can be patient and if they get a goal on the counter, I feel that will be enough to earn them a draw here.
Lyon (1) v (0) FC Porto – Home Win
I have to say that I was quite surprised that FC Porto didn’t win the first leg of this tie in Portugal. Lyon are a good side, there’s no doubt about that, but they haven’t really been in contention in the French League this season and I expected Porto to have much greater penetration against Lyon than they managed. As such, I can see this being another tough game for the Portuguese side who will have to force things, especially in the second half, to try and get on level terms and I think that may well allow Lyon to hit them on the break to secure a victory.
West Ham (0) v (1) Sevilla – Draw
A 1-0 defeat away to a team that has won this competition six times in its history, the most of any team, doesn’t sound too bad a result, but West Ham fans will know that given Sevilla’s reputation in this tournament, turning that result around is going to be tough. The Spaniards have not just gone well in Europe this season, but they are going very well domestically too and West Ham are going to have to be aware of how dangerous they are on the counter attack. The Hammers form has been a little patchy of late and they have lost their last two Europa League games 1-0 and my worry is here they may get one goal, but I can see Sevilla perhaps grabbing one on the break to secure a draw and with it the tie.
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.
onto the second legs of the Round of 16. Seven matches will see the seven winners progress into the quarterfinals where Red Bull Leipzig, who were given a bye after drawing Spartak Moscow, are already awaiting.
