Alongside the return of both the UEFA Champions League and Europa League is the return of Europe’s third-tier competition, the Europa Conference League.
Four quarter-final second legs are set to take place throughout Thursday evening, with two early kick-offs being followed by two games later in the night.
The standout game sees Aston Villa travel to France to face Lille, who are trailing 2-1 in the tie having lost at Villa Park in the first leg. While this is the most intriguing of the matches, the remaining ties are sure to provide just as much drama and action as everyone competes to secure their place in the semi-finals.
With this, we’ve picked out our top tips and booking codes for the upcoming games:
Fiorentina vs Viktoria Plzen
These two sides come together at the Stadio Artemio Franchi with the tie all square after a first leg that ended 0-0. Despite the scoreline, Fiorentina were the dominant side in that game, holding 73% of the ball and having 10 shots to Viktoria Plzen’s three, but they were unable to capitalise on this dominance as the game ended in a stalemate.
Fiorentina do have the advantage in this second leg as they play at home and with them only losing four times at home this season, as well as dominating the first leg, we see Fiorentina winning this one.
Fiorentina to win, 1.38
Lille vs Aston Villa
Ollie Watkins has been in superb form this season with the striker currently equalling his previous best scoring season, which came in his EFL Championship days with Brentford when he scored 26 times.
19 goals in the English Premier League sees him sit second in the scoring charts and he comes into this one having scored four goals in his last three games, including a fantastic finish against Arsenal last time out.
This scoring form will have the striker in huge confidence ahead of this one, and we believe that Watkins will get himself on the scoresheet once again here.
Ollie Watkins to score anytime, 2.75
Fenerbahce vs Olympiakos
Fenerbahce may have fallen to defeat in the first leg of this tie, but they will count themselves as rather unlucky to have lost having dominated large parts of the game.
Ismail Kartal’s men held 61% of the ball, taking 15 shots and creating an xG of 1.92, over double that of Olympiacos’s 0.84. Despite this, Fenerbahce found themselves 3-0 down with 30 minutes left in the game and were able to salvage the tie with two goals, giving them a chance of turning the tie around in Turkey.
We expect them to do just that in the second leg as their form at home this season has been fantastic, losing just once at home in the league and only twice across all competitions. Combined with their dominance in the first leg, we expect Fenerbahce to take control of this one and put their home advantage to good use and come out with a victory.
Fenerbahce to win, 1.62
Booking Codes:
6HK98QS, 6HK9BPP