The is heating up as teams have entered the quarter-final stage. Let’s look at the interesting matches to bet on.
West Ham v Lyon
West Ham will play host to Lyon tonight in one of the anticipated matches. This will be the first time in history these two sides face each other. The last time West Ham faced French opposition was against Metz during the 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup. This is the fifth Quarter-final tie for West Ham in the European Competition and they have progressed in three of the previous four. Their lone elimination game against Dinamo Tbilisi in the 1980/81 Cup Winners Cup.
Lyon is currently unbeaten in six outings ( four wins and two draws) against English opponents with their latest match coming against Manchester City in the 2019/20 season.
Lyon have been dangerous in the competition this season having already eliminated Porto to reach this stage. I give them an away win for such.
RB Leipzig v Atalanta
Atalanta travels to Germany to face RB Leipzig seeking to gain an advantage in the first leg of the Uefa Europa League quarter-final match. This is the first time both teams meet in the European competition. Leipzig’s only encounter with an Italian outfit came back in 2017/18 in the same competition eliminating Napoli in the last 32.
Leipzig are a goal-scoring machine in the European competition scoring 16 goals in the last six outings. Atalanta has won each of their last four European matches. If they win this match it will be their longest unbeaten run. All six of Atalanta’s meetings with German oppositions have come in the knockout stages against FC Koln, Bayer Leverkusen, and Borrusia Dortmund. They managed to prevail against FC Koln losing other ties.
Both teams are free goal-scoring sides so goals over 2.5 are expected.
Eintracht Frankfurt v Barcelona
This is going to be the first meeting between the two sides in the European competition. Frankfurt are unbeaten in eight matches ( 5 wins and 3 draws) against Spanish opposition. Frankfurt are unbeaten at home in quarterfinals and beyond in major competition in 16 matches ( 12 wins and four draws).
Barcelona have only lost three times in 20 outings in the Europa League with all defeats coming from away matches against Celta Vigo, Liverpool and Celtic. Barcelona have conceded 14 goals in the last three matches against German sides although all those games came against Bayern Munich. If you exclude Bayern, they are unbeaten against German opposition in 21 matches( 17 wins and four draws) since losing against Bayer Leverkusen in 2001.
Barcelona are coming to their best these days and is expected to claim a victory on the road.