Europa League Winner Odds: Arsenal Remain Favourites For Title
The UEFA Europa League returned this evening as eight first-leg play-off ties were completed but it’s Premier League high-flyers Arsenal remain the favourites to win the competition.
Sixteen teams are currently battling it out to secure a spot in the UEFA Europa League round of 16. Eight of the group winners in the competition have already advanced to the last 16 and are to be joined by the eight winners from the playoff round.
Group Winners:
- Arsenal
- Real Betis
- Fenerbahce
- Ferencvaros
- Feyenoord
- Freiburg
- Real Sociedad
- Union Saint-Gilloise
The group winners will be drawn as seeded, and the play-off winners will be drawn as unseeded. Teams from the same association are unable to play against each other in the round of 16, therefore the prospect of Arsenal drawing Manchester United, for example, is impossible.
Play-off round opponents Barcelona and Man Utd are the two highest ranked remaining teams in the competition (according to UEFA club coefficients), and go into next week’s second-leg tie with a 2-2 aggregate score after this evening’s draw.
Austrian Bundesliga side Red Bull Salzburg upset Jose Mourinho’s Roma in their first-leg tie. Nicolas Capaldo was the hero as he netted an 88th minute winner to take a 1-0 lead into the second leg in Italy.
The Europa League’s most successful team ever – Sevilla, comfortably beat Eredivisie side PSV Eindhoven in their first-leg tie. Goals from Youssef En-Nesyri, Lucas Ocampos and Nemanja Gudelj inspired the Spaniards to a 3-0 victory at the home.
Europa League Play-Off First-Leg Results In Full:
- Ajax 0-0 Union Berlin
- Barcelona 2-2 Manchester United
- Red Bull Salzburg 1-0 Roma
- Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 Stade Rennais
- Bayer Leverkusen 2-3 AS Monaco
- Juventus 1-1 FC Nantes
- Sevilla 3-0 PSV Eindhoven
- Sporting CP 1-1 Midtjylland
Ahead of this evening’s fixtures, Premier League giants Arsenal were the favourites to win the competition, with Barcelona in second and Manchester United in third. Following the conclusion of this evening’s matches – the latest odds for the outright winner of the Europa League have been revised.
- Arsenal @ 7/2
- Barcelona @ 5/1
- Manchester United @ 6/1
- Juventus @ 12/1
- Ajax @ 14/1
- Real Betis @ 16/1
- Real Sociedad @ 16/1
- Roma @ 16/1
- Freiburg @ 20/1
- Sevilla @ 25/1
- Stade Rennais @ 33/1
- Sporting CP @ 33/1
- PSV Eindhoven @ 33/1
- AS Monaco @ 33/1
- Bayer Leverkusen @ 40/1
- RB Salzburg @ 40/1
- Feyenoord @ 50/1
- Fenerbahce @ 50/1
- Union Berlin @ 50/1
- Union Saint-Gilloise @ 80/1
- Ferencvarosi @ 100/1
- Nantes @ 150/1
- Midtjylland @ 200/1
