Europa League Last 16: Momentum With Ole’s Men

It was plain sailing for Basel in the group stages and they were just as convincing in the last round as they saw off APOEL winning 4-0 over two legs. But they are yet to face opposition as strong as Eintracht Frankfurt who comfortably dispatched RB Salzburg in the last round with a home win of 4-1 putting the tie beyond doubt.

I’m confident that the Germans will maintain that strong home form with a comfortable 2-0 win.

English Premier League fans will see lots of familiar names in the Basaksehir line-up with veterans Clichy, Skrtel, Robinho and Demba Ba turning out for the Istanbul side. They host FC Copenhagen who managed to come back from a 1st leg defeat to Celtic in the last round and advance to the last 16.

There’s plenty of talent on both sides but no clear favourite so I’m going for a score draw.

United won this competition back in 2017 of course and have looked very convincing so far this year. On top of that they are coming off the back of a derby win over Manchester City at the weekend so confidence will be high. LASK do carry strong domestic form into the tie but I see them being overwhelmed by their opponents on the night.

Five-time Europa League winners Sevilla host Roma in the final 16. While they are enjoying strong domestic form, Sevilla were lucky to get past Cluj in the last round despite losing only once and winning five in the group stages. Roma will be hoping that they’ll be able to get at least an away goal to take with them back to Italy for the second leg.

I’m predicting a tense, low scoring draw.

Getafe have been a surprise package in the Europa League this season beating Ajax in the previous round and they now face another European great as they host Inter.

Inter are playing in the Europa League after finishing third in their Champions League group, behind Borussia Dortmund and Barcelona. They comfortably beat Ludogorets in the previous round and I think this might just be a giant-killing too far for Getafe.

Olympiakos have already knocked out English opponents when they beat Arsenal in last round. However, Wolves are a very different team to Arsenal, and they are hungry to win this competition. I think they’ll get a decent result in Greece to put them in a good position to qualify.

It’s all or nothing for Rangers in this competition as their chance of any domestic honours this year are all but gone. However, Stevie Gerrard’s men have saved their best performances this season for Europe with impressive wins over Porto and Braga en route to the final 16. Leverkusen will be buoyed by the recent upturn in form of wonderkid Kai Havertz who will cause a lot of problems for Rangers but I can’t write off the Gers at the always electric Ibrox.

For me, this has draw written all over it.

Wolfsburg and Shakhtar meet for the first time in European competition as both teams eye a Europa League quarter-final place. Wolfsburg arrived by way of a 5-1 aggregate win over Malmo in the last round whereas Shakhtar recorded a dramatic 5-4 aggregate win over Benfica.

It’s clear that both teams have attacking talent so a very hard game to predict. However, I fancy both teams to score and Shakhtar to get a win to take back to Donetsk.