UEFA’s grand plan to finish both their Champions League and Europa League competitions this summer remain in place and play returns in August as teams’ race towards the final. Both competitions were postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak across Europe and resulting lockdown, but football is returning to somewhere near normality and UEFA are determined to crown this season’s champions before quickly moving their attentions to the 2020/21 campaign.
The Europa League bounces back at the round of 16 stage and games will get underway on Wednesday 5 August with the final set for Friday 21 August at the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne, Germany. Three British sides remain in the running at this late stage, with English Premier League sides Manchester United and Wolves backed up by Scottish Premiership battlers Rangers who are led by manager Steven Gerrard.
Dates for your diary
UEFA recently announced the all-important fixture dates and they can now be added to your diary as football fans sit on the edges of their seats for what promises to be a spectacular few weeks. There will be no fans in attendance at the games, but each will be shown live on television with armchair fans spoiled for choice with what to focus on.
Here are the Europa League fixtures and dates to remember…
Copenhagen v Istanbul Basaksehir 5/8
Shakhtar Donetsk v Wolfsburg 5/8
Inter Milan v Getafe 5/8
Man Utd v LASK 5/8
Bayer Leverkusen v Rangers 6/8
Sevilla v Roma 6/8
Basel v Eintracht Frankfurt 6/8
Wolves v Olympiakos 6/8
Quarter final 10/8
Quarter final 10/8
Quarter final 11/8
Quarter final 11/8
Semi-final 16/8
Semi-final 17/8
Final 21/8
Focus on the British sides
Shining the spotlight on the three British sides still involved in the Europa League at this late stage we note Manchester United are all but through to the quarter finals as they have home advantage over LASK as well as a 5-0 aggregate lead. It would take a disaster from the Red Devils to be knocked out of the competition on Wednesday.
Wolves are also in a decent position, but things are nowhere near as good as they are over in Manchester. They managed a 1-1 draw in Greece against Olympiakos in the first leg and that could be enough to see them through. Scoring an away goal means a 0-0 draw here would see Wolves progress or if they win the match inside 90 minutes by any scoreline their adventure will continue.
Steven Gerrard’s Rangers are certainly up against it, however, after they suffered a 3-1 home defeat against Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen at Ibrox. It was always going to be a big ask knocking Bayer out, but things got much more difficult after that loss in Govan. We’ve seen some very interesting comebacks from Rangers in this tournament already but a win in Germany would top them all.
A few other fixtures of note are Wolfsburg trail Shakhtar Donetsk by an aggregate score of 2-1 heading into the second leg, so things don’t look too promising for them. Basel can begin planning for the next round as they have a 3-0 lead over Eintracht Frankfurt and no play has taken place so far between Sevilla and Roma so that one hangs in the balance.
Europa League betting
Major online bookmakers across the board have priced up each of the upcoming games as well as the Europa League outright betting market. This means bettors can make their predictions on the game of their choice, calling the winner or playing hundreds of specials markets.
In the outright betting, backers can look ahead and predict which team will finish as champions this month. The earlier they make their call on that one the more difficult it will be but the better price they’ll find available to them. The current favourites are Manchester United who are 11/4 top price offered by 888Sport while most other bookies serve up only 2/1. Savvy bettors will be tempted to place bets using a bet365 bonus code to gain a head start.
The main challengers are thought to be Inter Milan who rate as second favourites at 6/1 with 888Sport and 5/1 or 9/2 elsewhere. Bayer Leverkusen make up the top three after that convincing win over Rangers in Glasgow and they can bee backed at 13/2 with William Hill to lift the trophy. Other teams worth a mention are Wolves at 17/2, Getafe 16/1, Roma 18/1 and Olympiakos 80/1.
