The Europa League is a much maligned competition, especially during the early stages, when the Thursday night matches can cause problems for teams playing in their domestic leagues. However, with the tournament now at the semi-final stage, every team is in it to win and not only is the prize of the Europa League up for grabs, so is a place in next season’s Champions League.
The first match sees Villarreal welcome Liverpool to El Madrigal, in Spain. The home team came through a comfortable tie with Sparta Prague in the quarter-final, whereas Liverpool produced an amazing comeback, to knock out the tournament favourites, Borussia Dortmund. Given the circumstances of Liverpool’s home victory over Dortmund, Villarreal will be eager to make the most of this first leg match at home.
Form at home in the Europa League has been excellent and Villarreal have won all six of their matches at El Madrigal in the competition. Furthermore, the Yellow Submarine have conceded just one goal across all six of those games and they are 14/5 with StanJames to win the match to nil. In addition to this, Liverpool have only managed to keep one clean sheet in their last nine games in all competitions, so Villarreal will certainly fancy their chances of getting on the score-sheet. Cedric Bakambu, who has scored 4 goals in his last two games in the Europa League, is on offer at 11/2 with BetVictor to score the first goal of the game.
However, Liverpool have remained unbeaten in this season’s Europa League and despite the set-back against Newcastle on the weekend, have been in good form. The team have been scoring plenty of goals and certainly have the ability to trouble a strong looking Villarreal defence. The only problem for Liverpool, is the injuries they have suffered, with a number of midfielders and strikers out for the game, leaving Daniel Sturridge to lead the line. Jurgen Klopp will be keen to get an away goal, in what could be a tight match and having drawn each of their three away matches in the knockout stages of the Europa League, a similar result would be welcome. The 1-1 draw can be backed at 11/2 with Bet365.
The other semi-final, features the most successful team in the history of the Europa League, Sevilla and the 2008/09 winners, Shakhtar Donetsk. This match is very important for Shakhtar, as they are the home team and need to get a positive result, to stand any real chance of progression to the final.
Preparation for the match has not been great for Shakhtar, as they drew on the weekend and saw the domestic title go to Dynamo Kiev. That being said, home form in the Europa League has been good this season, winning two and drawing one of their three games, conceding just one goal in the process. Shakhtar to win the match to nil is on offer at 7/2 with StanJames. Sevilla have had a mixed bag of results away from home in the Europa League this season, winning, drawing and losing in their three matches. The main consideration for Unai Emery’s team, will be to take an away goal back to the Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan and for that to happen, they will be looking toward striker Kevin Gameiro, who has netted in each of the three knockout rounds. Gameiro is 6/1 with BetVictor, to score the opening goal of the game.
Shakhtar have only failed to score once in their last 15 matches and Sevilla once in their last 10, meaning both teams know how to find the back of the net, yet have struggled to string together a consistent run of form. The draw, with both teams to score is 7/2 with BetVictor.
Following these first legs, we may have a better idea of who will progress to the final at Basel’s St. Jakob-Park. However, given their outstanding record in the competition, it’s hard to ignore Sevilla as potential winners and they are currently 21/10 with Coral, to claim their fifth Europa League title.
