UEFA Europa League: United 2/1 favourites to clinch second title in four years
Now that domestic league action across Europe has finished, all eyes turn to European competition during August as the Champions and Europa League reaches its climax.
We recently discussed all of the updated odds for the Champions League winner market with a winners and losers from the UCL draw article, and now we’re going to take a closer look at the Europa League ahead of the competition returning tomorrow evening.
Shakhtar Donetsk v Wolfsburg and Copenhagen v Istanbul Basaksehir kicks things back off when they face each other in the last-16 phase a 5:55pm, before Inter Milan and Getafe lock horns at the neutral Arena AufSchalke, and LASK travel to Old Trafford to take on Manchester United in the evening’s late kick-off’s at 8pm.
United strong favourites, but Inter will be hot on their heels
The Red Devils are currently favourites to repeat their exploits from 2016-17, when they won the competition by beating Ajax 2-0 in the final.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side have already cemented their position in next season’s Champions League by finishing third in the Premier League but they’ll still want to end the campaign with some silverware to show for their efforts, and this is their last opportunity to do so.
United are a best-price 2/1 to go the distance with both Betfred and BetVictor - an implied probability of 33% - which is considerably shorter than second-favourites Inter Milan, who can be found at 5/1 to win the Europa League with a number of bookies.
The Serie A giants finished as runners-up behind Juventus by just a single point this time out, and were one of the most impressive sides in the Italian top-flight throughout the duration of an extremely elongated campaign.
Antonio Conte’s men will be ravenous in their quest to win their first major European trophy since 2010, when they won the Champions League under Jose Mourinho, and will fancy themselves up against a Getafe side who have been priced as 16/1 outsiders for the trophy.
Third-favourites are Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen, priced at 7/1 with 888sport. The German side are in pole position to qualify for the quarter-finals having beaten Rangers 3-1 at Ibrox in the first-leg of their last-16 tie back in March.
It seems unlikely that we’ll see a drastic turnaround from the Scot’s when the two sides meet in the reverse tie at the BayArena this Thursday, something echoed by the bookies as they have priced the Gers up as huge 500/1 shots to win the Europa League this month.
Wolves could be the value pick
Alongside United, the only other English side still left in the competition is Wolves. Amazingly, Nuno Espirito Santo’s side started their European adventure over a year ago when they took on Irish outfit Crusaders in their opening preliminary round fixture last July, and here they are still going strong and in with a great chance of progressing through to the quarter-finals.
The boys from the Black Country still have to finish the job they started against Olympiacos (80/1 shots for the trophy) this Thursday, as the Greek titans travel to Molineux with the score from the first-leg poised at 1-1.
If they can make it past them, though, then they are within reaching distance of the final. With Premier League football now finished and focus firmly on Europe, Wolves could really be a force in this competition with the scintillating talent they have within their ranks.
The West Midlanders are currently priced up at 8/1 to win their first ever major European tournament, which seems like a good price to get on at ahead of their clash with Olympiacos this week, as if they do manage to qualify then it will get slashed considerably.
Seasoned Europa League experts Sevilla are also priced up at 8/1. Indeed, the five-time UEFA Cup/Europa League winners face stiff competition in their one-legged last-16 clash against Roma (16/1 to go the distance) at Germany’s MSV-Arena this week, so it will be extremely interesting to see which of those two European heavy hitters will make it through to the next stage.
The final for the 2019-20 Europa League will take place in Cologne on Friday 21 August; a full list of each team’s outright winner odds can be found listed below.
