Football Free Bets
2010/11 Europa League outright betting preview
The draw has now been made for the Europa League group stages and forty-eight teams will battle it out for the twenty-four places available in the last 32 stage. They will then be joined by the eight third-placed teams from the Champions League, who will do battle until we have two teams contesting the final at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
Manchester City are currently favourites to win the Europa League at odds of 6/1 (Blue Square), with Roberto Mancini’s men shortening ever since they beat FC Timisoara at Eastlands to reach the group stage. The Citizens will face Juventus in the group stages, although both teams should comfortably progress to the business end of the tournament.
Juve are 16/1 (bet365) to go all the way in this competition and they were looking good last season until Fulham staged a remarkable comeback at Craven Cottage to send the Italian side flying out of the competition. The Old Lady are now managed by Luigi Delneri and boast players such as David Trezeguet and Alessandro Del Piero.
Liverpool’s progress to the group stages was a difficult one, with the Reds needing two late goals in Trabzon to beat Turkish opponents. The Reds will face Steaua Bucharest, Napoli and Utrecht and the bookies make them second favourites at odds of 11/1 (totesport). However, it appears that Roy Hodgson will continue to field the reserves in this competition.
Atletico Madrid look a big price (16/1 Bet Fred) considering they had the beating of Liverpool last season and ended up winning the Europa League. Quique Sánchez Flores has retained the nucleus of the team that were victorious last term and that includes Diego Forlan, who was arguably the best player of the 2010 World Cup.
There are many quality teams in this competition and it was a fairly big surprise to see Sevilla knocked out of the Champions League play-offs by Braga. With a strikeforce comprising Frederic Kanoute and Luis Fabiano, the Spanish team look big at 16/1 (Victor Chandler), although we should appreciate with the outright market that some strong teams will be dropping into the competition from the Champions League.
There should be a reasonably strong challenge from the German teams in the competition, especially from Bayer 04 Leverkusen who now have Michael Ballack in their ranks. Bet365 go 25/1 that they are victorious in Dublin next May, while Borussia Dortmund can count on tremendous home support and Blue Square make them 28/1 chances to be victorious.
At a slightly bigger price, Zenit St Petersburg should be able to make some steady progress and 33/1 (Sky Bet) is probably too big about a Russian team who won this competition recently. CSKA Moscow got to the quarter finals of the Champions League last season so they’re also too big at 33/1 (Sky Bet) to make a big splash in this competition, while Italy have a few teams that could also go well.
Sampdoria finished fourth in Serie A last term and are 40/1 with Stan James to win the Europa League, with Napoli (33/1 Paddy Power) and Palermo (40/1 totesport) also hoping it’s their year.
