The draw for the Europa League 2018/19 Group Stage was made on Friday, August 31st and the four remaining British teams, all now know their fates. With Burnley missing out in the qualification play off round, it leaves Chelsea and Arsenal as the representatives from the English Premier League. Joining them in the group stage of the Europa League will be Scottish duo Celtic and Rangers.
It is the English duo though who are dominating things at the head of the market. Chelsea are the 11/2 outright favourites at bet365 to win the tournament outright, with Arsenal 8/1 second-favourites* (betting odds taken on August 31, 2018, at 5:00 pm).
Here are Europa League group stage predictions for the groups involving the four British sides. This season’s Europa League has a total of nine debutants in the group stage this season including Dudelange who are the first ever team from Luxembourg to reach this stage. Rangers are one of four teams to reach the group stage having entered in the first qualifying round.
Europa League 2018/19 Winner Odds*
Chelsea 11/2
Arsenal 8/1
Sevilla 12/1
Bayern Leverkusen 25/1
AC Milan 25/1
RB Leipzig 25/1
Marseille 33/1
Lazio 33/1
Villarreal 33/1
Zenit St Petersburg 40/1
Bar 50/1
* (betting odds taken on August 31, 2018, at 5:00 pm)
Group A: Bayer Leverkusen (GER), Ludogorets (BUL), Zürich (SUI), AEK Larnaca (CYP)
Group B: Salzburg (AUT), Celtic (SCO), RB Leipzig (GER), Rosenborg (NOR)
There were much easier draws that Celtic could have pulled out of the hat. This is not going to be easy for the Scottish Champions. Primarily because of Salzburg. Salzburg hold a few key records in the Europa League. They are in a record eighth group stage campaign, as well as being the team who have scored the most group stage goals and amassed the most points in the group stage of the Europa League.
Salzburg were in the Europa League qualifiers but lost out in the playoffs against Red Star Belgrade. Celtic’s job also is going to be made difficult by Bundesliga side RB Leipzig, who are interestingly the sister club of Salzburg.
The German side were playing in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League last season but finished third but did then made a run to the quarter finals of the Europa League.
Then there is Rosenborgt who Celtic will have a rematch with. Celtic beat them during the Champions League qualifying campaign this season, banking a decisive 3-1 home win over the Norwegian champions. Rosenborg went on to beat Cork and the Shkendija to make their way through to the group stage of the Europa League.
Prediction: This is not going to be an easy task for Celtic and we can, unfortunately, see them coming up a bit short. The experience and threats of Salzburg and Leipzig may just be too much for the Bhoys to handle.
Group C: Zenit (RUS), København (DEN), Bordeaux (FRA), Slavia Praha (CZE)
Group D: Anderlecht (BEL), Fenerbahçe (TUR), Dinamo Zagreb (CRO), Spartak Trnava (SVK)
Group E: Arsenal (ENG), Sporting CP (POR), Qaraba? (AZE), Vorskla Poltava (UKR)
Arsenal won’t be too happy about the amount of travelling they have to do in the group as they have to go out to Baku and Ukraine. That’s some nasty trips for a Thursday night. In terms of quality of opposing them, Arsenal should be pretty comfortable in Group E. Qarabag were playing in the Champions League last season but didn’t get anywhere fishing bottom of a group which featured Chelsea, Roma and Atletico Madrid. They have lost their four previous European games against English sides.
Ukrainian champions Vorskla are only making their second appearance in the group stage of the Europa League following their unsuccessful appearance in 2011/12. So it pans out that even though Sporting have had such a tough time of things, they are the ones likely to follow Arsenal throughout of the group. Sporting had a lot of players leave the club, cancelling contracts following an attack on their training ground last term.
Prediction: Arsenal have a manager with good experience in Europe and they should manage themselves well enough in this one. We are backing them to win their group in Europa League betting at bet365 and are backing Sporting, who have former Manchester United winger Nani playing for them, to join them in qualification.
Group F: Olympiacos (GRE), AC Milan (ITA), Real Betis (ESP), Dudelange (LUX)
Group G: Villarreal (ESP), Rapid Wien (AUT), Spartak Moskva (RUS), Rangers (SCO)
What a successful start to managerial life for Steven Gerrard who has pulled Rangers through from the first qualifying round to the group stage. In the second leg of their playoff tie against Ufa out in Russia, Rangers had to survive with nine men. They have to go back to Russia to take on Spartak Moscow in the group. Spartak finished third in the Russian top flight last season.
Spanish side Villarreal who finished fifth in La Liga last season are the favourite to win the group and we are going with the prediction that they will do just that. They have a clear advantage in quality and experience at this kind of level and come straight in at the group stage. Rangers incidentally did meet Villarreal in the 2005/06 Champions League group stage.
Rapid Vienna came through a couple of qualification rounds to get to this stage and they were third-place finishers in the Austrian top flight last term. It is going to be so important for Rangers to deliver the goods on home soil and then look to survive those tough away trips. Spartak Moscow will probably be really stubborn opposition to break down.
Prediction: We have to stick with the strength of the Spaniards coming through and winning the group and we can see Rangers having a real battle to get out of the group. There is a degree of uncertainty in terms of experience and quality there and we think that Moscow could just pop them to second.
Group H: Lazio (ITA), Marseille (FRA), Eintracht Frankfurt (GER), Apollon (CYP)
Group I: Be?ikta? (TUR), Genk (BEL), Malmö (SWE), Sarpsborg (NOR)
Group J: Sevilla (ESP), Krasnodar (RUS), Standard Liège (BEL), Akhisar Belediyespor (TUR)
Group K: Dynamo Kyiv (UKR), Astana (KAZ), Rennes (FRA), Jablonec (CZE)
Group L: Chelsea (ENG), PAOK (GRE), BATE Borisov (BLR), Vidi (HUN)
Chelsea who are the 11/1 outright favourites to win this season’s Europa League* (betting odds taken on August 31, 2018, at 5:00 pm) will be so happy with the draw that they have received for this. They go against Hungarian side Vidi (formerly Videton) who fell out of Champions League qualifying this season. This is their first time back at this stage since the 2012/13 season.
As Vidi did, PAOK also failed in their Champions League qualification campaign and ended up here. They lost to Benfica’s in the play offs. BATE were in Arsenal’s group in the Europa League last season and they finished bottom of that group, getting beaten 10-2 on aggregate by the Gunners in their group meetings. There’s really nothing here to trouble Chelsea.
Prediction: So this has to be all simple and routine stuff for Chelsea and you can easily see them winning all three of their home groups. The quality in the rest of the teams just isn’t there to stop them marching through to the next round of the competition. It’s actually tough to pick out who is likely to get the other qualification place. We will edge things with PAOK who could dig in enough on home soil to get themselves through over the others.
