The UEFA Europa League play-off round came to a close a fortnight ago with some of the ties ending in hugely dramatic fashion. Now the Europa League is set to move into the round of 16 and eight of these first legs will be taking place this week.
Despite being Europe’s second-tier competition, some of the games see top sides from across the continent come together. The standout games see Sporting play Atalanta on Wednesday night and Marseille hosting Villarreal on Thursday.
With so many other games also sure to provide plenty of action, we’ve picked out our top tips and booking codes for the upcoming fixtures:
Sporting vs Atalanta
Viktor Gyokeres has been an absolute sensation for his new side this season, scoring 32 goals and assisting 11 in all competitions. While he has been scoring consistently all season, he comes into this game on the back of a goal in all of his last four matches and the Swede will be wanting to add another one against Atalanta.
Sporting and Atalanta have already played each other in this year’s Europa League after they were drawn in the same group at the beginning of the tournament. Atalanta had the better of these two games with them winning the first game 2-1 and the second ending in a 1-1 draw.
Gyokeres played his part in both of these games though as he scored in Sporting’s loss and assisted Marcus Edwards in the second game. Sporting will be looking for revenge against the Italian side in this game and with Atalanta coming into this in shaky form that has seen them go winless in three games, we fancy Sporting to take the victory.
Whenever Sporting win this season, Gyokeres seems to play a big part in the result and for this reason, we expect Gyokeres to get on the scoresheet once again in this one to add to his 43 goal contributions this season, the most in Europe’s top seven leagues.
Viktor Gyokeres to score anytime, 2.50
Marseille vs Villarreal
Another of the Europa League’s top strikers is making an appearance this week in Marseille’s Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang. The striker has been in red-hot form for the French side this season, especially in the Europa League where he leads the goalscoring charts with seven goals in seven appearances.
This is not the only chart he leads in terms of Europa League goals after his first-half equaliser in Marseille’s last Europa League game against Shakhtar Donetsk saw Aubameyang move ahead of Radamel Falcao as the competition’s all-time top scorer with 31 goals.
With the forward’s form in the Europa League this season, as well as scoring four in his last three games, we fancy Aubameyang to get on the scoresheet once again against Villarreal.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang to score anytime, 2.25
Roma vs Brighton
Roma vs Brighton has the potential to be one of the best ties in the entire competition with both teams tending to concede but also to score plenty of goals, as can be seen with both having players in the top three goal scorers of the tournament this season in Romelu Lukaku and Joao Pedro.
The Italian side will come into this first leg as favourites to win the game, largely in part due to their superior form compared to Brighton’s coming into the game but also their impressive home record this season. Roma have played 19 games at home this season in all competitions, losing just twice while winning 14 of these. They also head into this game having lost only one game since the appointment of Daniele De Rossi as manager on the 16 January.
Brighton, on the other hand, have only won one of their last five games and are now without a win in their last three matches. This poor run of form has seen Brighton slide down the English Premier League table and the Seagulls now find themselves in ninth position. While Roberto De Zerbi will be hoping he can guide his side to victory in his home country as he looks to get Brighton’s season back on track, we believe that Roma will have too much for his side and take the victory into the second leg.
Roma to win, 2.16
Booking Codes:
6B8ZKDB, 6B8ZNXL
1 Comment
by Deejaysolid
I need code for today