The Europa League has two English Premier League clubs heading to the group stage of the tournament and they are Arsenal and Everton. The second-tier competition from UEFA will mean some frustrating Thursday night action for them both which can often take away from the weekend’s domestic action. So how will these two deal with this? This is the first time in 20 years that Arsenal have been in the UEFA Cup/Europa League and they are there because of their disappointing fifth place finish in the Premier League last season.
Everton had to come through qualification to reach the group stage of the tournament and the tournament boasts other big clubs like Villarreal, AC Milan and Lazio. There doesn’t look to be tough challenges ahead for either Arsenal or Everton in the group stage at all and the Gunners are trading as second favourites at Coral to win the title at a price of 8/1. How hard will they be driving at it though? Will they take inspiration from Manchester United’s Europa League win last season which propelled the Red Devils back to the Champions League? Everton are a 25/1 shot at Coral to win outright.
Europa League Winner Odds
AC Milan 7/1, Arsenal 8/1, Athletic Bilbao 25/1, Villarreal 25/1, Everton 25/1, Lyon 25/1, Marseille 25/1, Lazio 40/1, Zenit 40/1, Hoffenheim 40/1, bar 50/1
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Group A: Villarreal, Maccabi Tel Aviv, Astana, Slavia Prague.
The Spaniards are strong favourites to take a group win at a price of 4/9 with Coral. They lost out in last season’s Champions League play off to Monaco and dropped to the Europa League where they were beaten out in the round of 32 by Roma. They struggled for clean sheets all the way. Maccabi had a big long run through the qualifying round to get the group stage and in last season’s tournament, they failed to get out of their group.
Group B: Dynamo Kiev, Young Boys, Partizan Belgrade, Skenderbeu.
Dynamo Kiev will be fancied here because they were participants in the UEFA Champions League season. They didn’t get very far though winning just one of their six games in the group stage. So they are down in the Europa League this season which is probably more of their pace. Hard to see where any serious challenge is coming from and Kiev are 5/6 outright favourites to win the group. Young Boys probably carry the biggest threat but they failed to get out of last season’s Europa League group stage.
Group C: Sporting Braga, Ludogorets, Hoffenheim, Istanbul Basaksehir.
Braga could only finish third in their Europa League group last season behind Shakhtar Donetsk and Gent. They won just one of their six games so they are not a huge threat. Ludogorets were in the group stage of the Champions League last season when they challenged well at times against Arsenal and PSG. Worth a punt on them but after their great season last term and challenging Liverpool in the Champions League play off round, Hoffenheim are 11/10 favourites to win this group. Istanbul Basaksehir also dropped from the Champions League qualifiers. This should be one of the more competitive groups.
Group D: AC Milan, Austria Vienna, Rijeka, AEK Athens.
Little surprise who are the favourites in this one. AC Milan are 1/3 odds on to take the group and they are outright favourites to win the tournament. The Italians are probably going to be taking this pretty seriously because they will be lacking in the domestic Serie A title challenge.
Group E: Lyon, Everton, Atalanta, Apollon Limassol.
A decent enough group for Everton, even though they will be a duel with Lyon. Both are joint 11/8 favourites at Coral to win the group so the top spot will come down to who gets the better of that head to head. Lyon will actually host the final on May 16th next year. Everton had to get past Hajduk Split in the play off round to get back to European action for the first time since the 2014/15 season. Lyon were in last season’s Champions League so have the better experience and after falling down to the Europa League last season, they reached the semi finals.
Group F: FC Copenhagen, Lokomotiv Moscow, Sheriff Tiraspol, FC Zlin.
There is a straight out duel between Lokomotiv Moscow and FC Copenhagen in this one as they are trading as joint 5/4 favourites to win the group. It’s really a toss up between them as to who gets it. Copenhagen may have a little more going for them in terms of handling themselves out on the road.
Group G: Viktoria Plzen, Steaua Bucharest, Hapoel Beer-Sheva, FC Lugano.
You can really see the lack of competitiveness in this tournament the more you dig into the groups. Viktoria Plzen are the 2/1 outright favourites to win the group, with Steaua at 9/4. But neither of them look particularly strong, certainly not have Hapoel Beer-Sheva pull themselves in the mix and they aren’t bad value out at 4/1 to top the pile. They qualified ahead of Southampton and Inter Milan in last season’s group stage.
Group H: Arsenal, BATE Borisov, Cologne, Red Star Belgrade.
The Gunners get a run out in Group H then when they are odds on favourites at 1/3 to win the group. There really isn’t a challenger which is likely to stand up to them at all. Certainly, Belgrade and BATE aren’t up to much, leaving Cologne the most likely to follow the Gunners through to the knockout stage.
Group I: Salzburg, Marseille, Vitoria Guimaraes, Konyaspor.
Marseille would have to be backed heavily to get out of this group in the top spot. There are some dead rubber looking games in this one with Vitoria Guimaraes and Konyaspor unlikely to mount any kind of challenges to either the French outfit for Salzburg. Back Marseille to win at 8/11 with Coral and Salzburg to follow through with them.
Group J: Athletic Bilbao, Hertha Berlin, Zorya Luhansk, Ostersund.
Bilbao could well be up there as one of the main contenders to walk away with the Europa League title. They are 5/6 to kick things off with a group win here. Their only challenge to them in the group is Hertha Berlin who are 13/8 to steal the top spot from the Spanish outfit.
Group K: Lazio, Nice, Zulte Waregem, Vitesse Arnhem.
There should be a pretty decent battle between Lazio and Nice in this one. The Italians are only even money to win the group and while they have decent scoring in their ranks, their defence isn’t great. But Nice, who beat Ajax in the Champions League qualifiers this season, slipped out of the play off round against Napoli. Can they raise their game to beat Lazio to the punch?
Group L: Zenit St Petersburg, Real Sociedad, Rosenborg, Vardar.
Zenit missed out on the group stage last year after being beaten by Anderlecht on away goals in the play off round. They are coached by Roberto Mancini and will be hoping for a decent run. They have a serious challenger in this group though in the form of Real Sociedad after their sixth place finish in La Liga last season.
