With the season's end coming closer and closer, the picture for who could win the Europa League is becoming clearer. Find out our picks for the Europa League favourites.
Last Updated: 21/04/23 at 11:00 am
The Europa League is getting towards the final stages, with the Semi-Finals coming up as the next round, which means only eight teams will be left.
With that, we are taking a look at the teams who will be involved in the quarter-final draw and labelled who we think could be the favourites to win the Europa League title this season.
Sevilla
Masters of the competition
When you talk about the best teams in the Europa League, there simply is no team better than Sevilla. The Spanish side may not be one of the leading teams in their country, but like Real Madrid in the Champions League, Sevilla seem to know the key to winning the Europa League.
They have the record for most wins in the history of the competition, having won it six times with all wins coming after 2000, doing the double in 2006 and 2007, the treble in 2014-2016, and then most recently winning it in 2020.
Sevilla didn’t actually start the competition in the Europa League, but instead were one of the teams who dropped down from the Champions League. They finished third in their group, which also featured Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, and Copenhagen.
Going down to play in the Europa League knockout round playoff, they faced PSV in a very close contest.
The first leg at their home saw them win easy, taking a 3-0 win to Eindhoven. But the second leg proved a bit trickier, with PSV getting two goals late and pilling on the pressure to scare the Rojiblancos. They were able to hold on, though, and advanced to the Round of 16.
In the Round of 16, the first leg at their home of the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium saw them win 2-0 against Turkish side Fenerbahce. They lost the second leg 1-0 but still went through 2-1 on aggregate.
In the Quarter-Final round, Sevilla found themselves up against Manchester United who was the favourites to win the competition. The first leg saw United take a 2-0 lead at home before two very late goals from the Spanish side levelled the game at full time.
In the second leg Sevilla were rampant, comprehensively defeating the Red Devils 3-0 to book their place in the penultimate round of the competition.
As we said earlier, no team is better in the competition than Sevilla. They seem to have an innate ability to succeed and go far in the tournament, so expect them to do so again this year.
Sevilla have a number of top players, some who shone on the world stage at the World Cup last year.
Yassine Bounou and Youssef En-Nesyri were both part of the history-making Morocco side that finished fourth, while Marcos Acuna was part of the Argentina squad that won the World Cup. Alongside other top players like Alex Telles and Ivan Rakitic, they are sure to advance and do well.
AS Roma
Reigning ECL Champions
AS Roma are the reigning champions of the newly-formed Europa Conference League, winning the first edition of the competition.
The side, led by the self-proclaimed ‘Special One’ Jose Mourinho, have looked strong the last two seasons, and are very much in with a shout of finishing in the top four of the Serie A this season - something they haven’t done since 2018.
Roma received automatic qualification to the Europa League by winning the Europa Conference League last season.
They finished second in their group, meaning they had to go through the knockout round playoffs, where they faced Red Bull Salzburg.
In the first leg in Salzburg, they fell to a 1-0 loss. But all was not lost, as the second leg would be at their home, and they managed to overturn the deficit, with Andrea Bellotti and Paulo Dybala finding the two goals they needed to get and stay ahead and win the tie.
The Round of 16 produced a tough matchup, coming up against Real Sociedad. The first leg was at home for them, and they managed to get the result they needed, taking a 2-0 lead into the second leg.
In the second leg, they faced a strong fight from Sociedad, who dominated the game. But Roma were in top form, holding back their opposition to a goalless draw and seeing through the tie.
In the Quarter-Final round Roma found themselves up against Dutch giants Feyenoord. The Italian side made short work of the opposition, defeating them 4-1 in the second leg to overturn a 1-0 first leg deficit and book their place in the Semi-Finals against Bayer Leverkusen.
Roma will be tricky customers for any side they come up against, so don’t bet against them in their campaign to winning another European trophy this season.
How to watch Europa League games live
One of the teams we haven’t mentioned yet, but may still be the eventual winners of this year's competition is Juventus. The Italian side made it through their Quarter-Final tie against Sporting Lisbon with an aggregate score of 2-1.
However, we are not including them as one of our favourites as Juventus have had a rough season, with a points deduction mid-way through in the league and financial issues plaguing them.
We feel more confident in saying that at least one of the two teams above will be in the final.
Every game is serious at this point in the competition, and no lead is truly safe when it comes to the second leg. This makes for unmissable action.
You can watch some of the best teams in the competition with premium hospitality to some of the teams still left in the Europa League, including:
- AS Roma
- Juventus
- Sevilla
This includes the teams’ Europa League Semi-Final fixtures. Take a look at the hospitality packages available on our website, and be sure to register interest in Sevilla, Juventus and AS Roma Europa League Semi-Final hospitality to be the first to get your hands on tickets.
Buy Sevilla hospitalityBuy Juventus FC hospitalityBuy AS Roma hospitality
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