Europa League Winner Odds 2023/24: Aston Villa favourites
The Europa Conference League - UEFA's newborn European competition - is back for its third season of thrills.
After the draw was made on Friday 1st September, odds have been duly released.
Who will follow in Roma and West Ham's footsteps of winning the tournament? We run you through the market in our latest UECL deep dive.
Before we talk about the odds, let's put them into some context by outlining this year's group draw.
England's sole representatives Aston Villa have been placed into Group E alongside last season's Dutch semi-finalists AZ Alkmaar, Polish side Legia Warsaw and HŠK Zrinjski Mostar from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
For added British interest, Aberdeen find themselves in a competitive Group G with Germans Eintracht Frankfurt, PAOK, who beat out Hearts to qualify, and HJK Helsinski - the first Icelandic team to qualify for a UEFA club competition.
Meanwhile, the 2022/23 runners-up Fiorentina are expected to top Group F where they'll fight it out with the Hungarian Ferencvaros, Belgian Pro League outfit Genk and FK Cukuracki based in Serbia.
Take a look at a breakdown of this year's top five contenders in the market:
Aston Villa
Embarking on their first European adventure for 13 years, Aston Villa hope to etch themselves as only the third name on this new trophy. Money has come in on AVFC already, opening as 11/2 favourites and shortening over the first weekend to around 4/1.
In Unai Emery The Villans possess a European specialist qualified in ranks above this competition having lifted the Europa League in three consecutive seasons at Sevilla between 2014-2016 and again with Villarreal in 2021.
The Midlanders have recruited strongly over the summer, adding Leverkusen's Moussa Diaby, Villarreal defender Pau Torres, Youri Tielemans on a free transfer, as well as the loan captures of Nicolo Zaniolo and Clement Lenglet.
Fiorentina
2022/23's finalists were narrowly edged out by Jarrod Bowen's last gasp winner in Prague. The Serie A side finished as runners-up in last year's Group A, missing out on top spot because of a inferior goal difference to Istanbul Basaksehir.
Along their route to the final, Fiorentina saw off FC Twente across two play-off legs to initially qualify for the competition, before then dismissing Braga, Turkish side Sivasspor, Lech Poznan and finally Basel in the semi-finals.
Multiple bookmakers go 7/1 for I Viola to go one better this season.
Eintracht progressed to last season's Champions League knockout stages after finishing second to Tottenham in Group D. They were dispatched comfortably by quarter-finalists Napoli, who put five past the German side without reply across two last-16 ties.
Following a 7th place finish in the Bundesliga, they had to navigate a two-legged play-off with Levski Sofia to participate in this season's competition.
Frankfurt beat West Ham to lift the 2021/22 Europa League trophy, putting them in good stead for that competition's younger brother this season. That European trophy came 42 years after they won the UEFA Cup and The Eagles represent a 10/1 shot for UECL glory.
Lille
Armed with a wealth of talent, from former Premier League names like Nabil Bentaleb, Remy Cabella and Ivan Cavaleiro to Barcelona loanee Samuel Umtiti and dangerous forward Jonathan David, Lille look well equipped to mount a serious assault on the Europa Conference League this term.
The French side suffered for their Champions League knockout stage progress in the previous season by getting to enjoy no form of European football during 2022/23. Now, The Mastiffs will be eyeing this year's top prize, especially having been matched in an incredibly favourable Group A with Slovan Bratislava, Olimpija Ljubljana and Kí Klavsvík.
They're being given a 12/1 shot to be crowned champions in Athens on May 29th 2024.
AZ Alkmaar
14/1 is where Group E Dutch outfit AZ Alkmaar stand in the outright winner market. In the club's 56th season last year, the Cheeseheads won 20 of their 34 Eredivisie matches, finishing 4th and qualifying for this competition's play-off round for the third consecutive season.
They've made tangible progress in the tournament too, building upon their last-16 appearance in 2021/22 with a semi-final showing in the previous campaign. Eventual winners West Ham managed a 3-1 aggregate win at that stage, but there were plenty of positives to take from the improved experience.
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