Who Are the 2021-22 Europa League Favourites?
West Ham United cruised into the last sixteen stage of the Europa League after winning four and drawing one of their first five matches in the group stage. David Moyes’ side have barely put a foot wrong in the competition and the London side are now able to rest players until we get to the knockout phase where they will meet a team from the Champions League or a group runner-up.Meanwhile, the same applies to a Lyon side who have boasted a flawless record in the Europa League group stage and the French side are clearly going to be a difficult tie after taking this competition seriously. They have averaged three goals per group game when clashing with Sparta Prague, Rangers and Brondby.
Napoli are riding high at the top of the Serie A table and they are among the Europa League favourites, although the Italian side aren’t absolutely certain to reach the knockout stage. They clash with Leicester in their final group stage clash and need to win the game to be certain to get over the line and into the knockout stage.
Leverkusen, Lazio and Leicester Next in the Betting
Bayer Leverkusen are one of the stronger teams in Germany and they have come out top in their Europa League group despite stiff competition from Real Betis and Celtic. Gerardo Seoane’s side are highly competitive and they look so defensively strong after conceding just four goals in their five group games played.
Lazio don’t always take the Europa League too seriously considering their main aim is to engineer a top four spot and qualify for the Champions League instead. They will need to overcome Galatasaray in their final group clash to seal top spot and avoid a match against one of the teams who finished third in their UCL group.
Leicester City have finished fifth in the Premier League over the past two seasons although the Foxes are making heavy weather of qualifying for the knockout stage of the competition. They might need to get a positive result against Napoli in their final group game to avoid dropping down into the Europa Conference League.
2020/21 Europa League Last 32 round betting tips
The 2020/21 Europa League now has thirty-two teams remaining, with the twelve group winners and runners-up being joined by the teams who finished third in their respective Champions League groups and the draw has been made for the first knockout stage of the competition.
We’ve got several attractive ties and Manchester United are among the clubs who have dropped into this competition, with the Red Devils having been handed a tough match-up in the form of La Liga-leading Real Sociedad, with David Silva now turning out for the Spanish side after recently leaving Manchester City.
Europa League last-32 drawTottenham Hotspur will be relatively happy to have drawn Wolfsberger and they are going to be strong favourites to overcome their Austraian opponents, although Manchester United might find life much tougher against a Sociedad side who qualified for the Europa League knockout stage with relative ease.
Meanwhile, Arsenal have also been handed a relatively tough ordeal against Portuguese giants Benfica, although it’s looking as though the Europa League is the only way that the latter are going to qualify for the Champions League next season due to some dismal domestic form.
Glasgow Rangers are in with a shout of going a long way in this competition and Steven Gerrard will be relatively happy to see his team face Royal Antwerp, while Leicester City are up against Slavia Prague and have enough squad depth and quality to make it through to the next round and go deep.
Spurs New Favourites to Win 2020/21 Europa League
Ironically, Jose Mourinho has won the Europa League with Manchester United and his Tottenham Hotspur team could end up facing the Red Devils in the final, although the bookies think that Spurs are the likeliest team out of the 32 to lift this season’s trophy.
While Mourinho regards himself as a Champions League manager, he will look to steer Spurs a long way in this competition and some will like the 11/2 about the north London side triumphing despite the fact that a reserve team will continue to be fielded.
United are as big as 7/1 to win the competition and it’s possible that they’ll need to triumph in order to qualify for the Champions League, while Arsenal are a 9/1 chance although it would take a brave punter to back them at that price considering the team are in a mess at the time of writing.
AC Milan are the first of the non-English sides to feature in the betting and the Italian side should overcome Red Star Belgrade to reach the last sixteen stage, while Leicester City are also a force to be reckoned with at this level and we might see several British teams in the business end including Rangers at 40/1.
The Europa League is one of the biggest UEFA club football competitions and is second only to the Champions League in terms of prestige. Teams from England, Spain, Italy, Germany, France and Netherlands are among those who participate and the winner of each season’s Europa League lands an automatic qualifying berth to the UEFA Champions League the following season.
How Does the Europa League Work?
The Europa League usually starts in July and before the majority of domestic football campaigns have kicked off. There are several qualifying rounds before we get to the group stage and there are generally twelve groups of four teams, with each group having a seeding structure which means that the best teams are kept apart at this phase of the competition.
Once the group stage of the Europa League is complete, we then have twelve winners of the group and twelve runners-up and they go through to the knockout stage of the competition. In addition to these twenty-four teams, there are also eight teams from the Champions League that drop into this competition and they are the sides who finished third in their respective groups.
Now the thirty-two teams are drawn into a knockout stage and there are sixteen ties played on a home-and-away basis. We then have a last sixteen and last eight and last four stage which is played on a similar basis, with the away goals rule in force which means teams sometimes go through despite being level on aggregate.
Finally, we have the Europa League final where the two teams left standing compete at a neutral venue and the winner not only lands the Europa League trophy but they also qualify for the Champions League the following season. Sometimes they might have already qualified for this competition due to their standing in their domestic league.
Which Teams Have Won Recent Europa League Competitions?
There have been a real mixture of different teams winning the Europa League for one obvious reason. The leading teams in Europe generally compete in the Champions League which means that the teams at the business end of each Europa League tend to be third-placed sides from the Champions League groups along with the teams who are roughly fifth or sixth best in their respective domestic table.
Chelsea were the winners of the 2018-19 Europa League, beating Arsenal in an all-England final and the west London club were also successful in 2012-13 when beating Benfica at the Amsterdam Arena. However, the Blues have also been involved in the Champions League in recent years and managed to win this competition too.
Atletico Madrid are another Champions League regular who occasionally dip into the Europa League and they triumphed in the 2017-18 season when beating Marseille 3-0, while Diego Simeone’s side also overcame Athletic Bilbao by a similar scoreline in the 2012-13 final.
Manchester United were successful under Jose Mourinho in 2016-17, although the more remarkable achievement came in the preceding three years when Unai Emery steered Sevilla to three successive victories in the Europa League and that was before the winners of the competition automatically qualified for the Champions League.
What’s the Best Way to Bet on the Europa League?
The group stage of the Europa League is generally when betting customers start to get involved in the competition. There are an absolute heap of matches which generally take place on a Thursday night and you can choose from hundreds of pre-match and In-Play betting markets when it comes to every game.
We recommend that you use Odds1x2.com to compare the prices for each match so that you can bet in the confidence that you are securing the biggest odds about your selection, with customers often enjoying markets such as Full-Time Result, Both Teams to Score and Over/Under 2.5 Goals.
Many betting customers like to place a Europa League accumulator and this can apply to each round of group games along with the last 32 and last 16 stage where there are matches taking place simultaneously.