It has been a long time now since an English club lifted the second European competition. One has to go back to Liverpool and their 5-4 win over Alaves to see that.
This week saw three English sides grind out first leg leads. But all three clubs played at home and must now play away in the second legs. Fulham beat the holders Shakhtar Donetsk 2-1 at Craven Cottage but I don’t fancy their chances in Donetsk.
Fulham will have to be at their very best and Shakhtar to probably have an off night for them not to get beaten. Actually if it wasn’t for an 81st minute goal at Anfield, Liverpool would have been going back to Romania with a 0-0 scoreline against Unirea Urziceni.
This team beat Rangers home and away so they have to be respected. 1-0 at home is a decent result these days so I expect Liverpool to go through.
Another side who will have to pull out all the stops is Everton. Conceding an 87th minute penalty gave Sporting Lisbon a valuable away goal and at only 2-1 ahead, they too will find it tough away from home.
I think that the quality is very strong in the Europa League this year and it is no surprise that the bookmakers have installed Liverpool as favourites. Personally I think it is hard to find a case to make anyone clear favourites.
But one thing with The Reds is that winning this competition would see an awful lot of pressure lifted from Rafa Benitez. A European trophy would carry on the traditions of European success for Liverpool and if they could garnish that with a 4th place finish in the Premier League then that would be a fantastic season for Rafa.
Although I certainly would not be surprised to see Urziceni dump Liverpool out in the same way that Reading did in the FA Cup.
