Topic: UEFA Europa League 2023/24 Season - page 261. (Read 58914 times)

Roma success last season in reaching the final will certainly make them a respected club, so that every team that meets them needs to be fully alert if they don't want to be eliminated easily. But things are a little different now, because the main actor has left, namely Mourinho. De Rossi, who is now the head coach of Roma, will try to do better. He is determined to bring Roma to become champions even though he realizes that his team abilities are limited. The depth of Roma squad is not like Liverpool, or close to Leverkusen, which has been on fire all season, but they have Lukaku who they can rely on up front.

De Rossi journey continues to the round of 16, he has succeeded in guiding his squad through the play off round, and Brighton will be a tough opponent for them next. De Zerbi has better ammunition, and his team plays regularly in the very competitive league, namely the Premier League. Herein lies the difficulty that Roma will face, a defensive strategy and relying on counter attacks might be a good choice for De Rossi. Because if they play openly, Roma could be slaughtered by Brighton even though they act as hosts. However, with almost the same squad that played in the Europa League final last season, Roma has the mentality to overcome every challenge they face.

Exactly. People here seem to have forgotten that Roma have reached the Europa League final last season and only lost to a rabid Sevilla side. Sure, that was under Jose Mourinho who was sacked recently but I would easily fancy Roma advancing very far into in the competition and beating Roberto de Zerbi's side which is plagued with (what feels to be bald) rotation and who have very inferior players compared to Roma.

There is no doubt about Leverkusen's performance in providing fierce resistance and defeating their opponents, overall Qarabag is nothing when compared to Leverkusen's current performance, indeed sometimes surprises can still happen but Leverkusen is aware that this cannot be achieved easily by Qarabag because Leverkusen is very focused when they are on the field so Qarabag's chances of winning are very small, I don't mean to underestimate Qarabag, it's just that I see that Leverkusen is able to beat their big rivals in the Bundesliga and I don't think Qarabag is any tougher than their big rivals, but Leverkusen must not be arrogant, they must also be alert, sometimes underdog teams can read their opponents' thoughts and can provide difficult resistance when playing at home, therefore Leverkusen must remain focused on achieving victory in both home and away matches.

Talking about Liverpool's match against Sparta Prague, I think it is not an easy match for Leverkusen because the club has just beaten a club that was relegated from the Champions League, namely Galatasaray, even though the strengths of Galatasaray and Liverpool are different, Liverpool still has to be wary of that club because of Sparta Prague. play very well when playing at home and are able to score lots of goals like they did against Galatasaray, but I hope Liverpool can learn from Galasaray's performance and Jurgen Kloop has definitely prepared an effective strategy to beat Sparta Prague, actually there is no doubt about Liverpool's victory, it's just that Sparta Prague's latest appearance is worth watching out for.

I would say that the reason why Leverkusen is so clinical is because they do have a perfect system for their players, put Xabi at Liverpool and Klopp at Leverkusen and things may not be so great for both of them, but because they are both great at what they do, they perfected their teams because of it and that's what matters.

I believe that we are going to end up seeing them do even better in the near future. For this to mean something I think we need to arrange a sort of change eventually, but for now I think Leverkusen will do just fine as long as they do not have any injured players. Liverpool still looks like the better team though, they are really doing great so far and could win it all in the end as well.

Maybe yes or maybe not. the reason is, De zerbi's squad is stronger when his team meets a squad that is one level above him. in the meeting against Roma, currently the betting market is slightly favoring AS Roma. Naturally, the first leg match was held at the Stadio Olimpico, Rome's headquarters. apart from that, in the 7 matches that De Rossi played with his team, AS Roma only experienced 1 defeat, 1 draw and 5 wins. including the match against Torino, which will end soon. Roma lead 3-2, Dybala scored a hat trick in this match.nDe Rossi did one step better with his team squad. now, Roma has the potential to shift the ranking of Atlatala, who will visit Inter Milan's headquarters. if the results are minor, or even lose to Inter. On the other hand, Roma was able to overthrow Monza, De Zerbi's team is getting closer to fourth place in the top four of the Serie A standings. that is, if the scenario is like what I said.

On the other hand, in the Brighton camp, their performance is not that stable in the domestic league. likewise, when competing in the group stage, the match was not as smooth as all the wins. so, it's no different from AS Roma. Roma did lose the match against Inter, but it's natural that De Rossi has only managed a few matches with AS Roma. however, the point is that they were also able to break through the goal of Simone Inzaghi's squad. after all, Inter Milan is in performance with a very positive trend. so, it was natural that Roma lost at that time. on the other hand, I see that Roma has a chance to beat Brighton in the first leg. apart from that, it is strengthened by the odds available for both teams. however, if Roma collapses at their own headquarters, it will be very difficult for De Rossi to achieve an absolute victory when he visits England later.

Brighton is not overly better than Roma. I agree that Brighton is slightly in better form but that doesn't mean Roma doesn't have a chance. Roma have been better under the management of De Rossi.
Brighton also concede a lot of goals like Roma so Brighton don't have too much of an advantage there.
The way I see it, both teams have a very big chance of qualifying. I might go against popular picks and take Roma to win.



How did you conclude that the premier league is more difficult than the Serie A? Have you been following Serie A in recent years? Do you see how competitive it has become? In fact, to me, Serie A is the most competitive league among the top 5 leagues. This misconception that the premier league is harder than every other league should stop.

I didn't see that was the reason to get rid of AS Roma, when compared between AS Roma and Brighton I see AS Roma more worthy of winning and going to the next round, Roma has the ability and experience in competitions like this even Roma should be at a higher level like the Champinos League. Indeed Brighton cannot be underestimated but I also no reason why Roma should lose, besides that Roma also has players like Lukaku who understands how to play in the Premier League so this will be an interesting match with AS Roma has a little advantage and if I have to bet on 1 x 2 then I will choose Roma. The match in the first leg will be a determinant of Roma steps in this competition.

But you said it yourself and if you extend your sentence with your logic then you arrive at the fact that good teams can be unlucky of course, but they can also be lucky. Don't forget that Bayer Leverkusen had a couple of games now that could have ended in a draw but didn't because Leverkusen succeeded in scoring that one late goal which brought them the win.

In the Europa League I still see Bayer Leverkusen as one of the strongest teams by far besides Liverpool. I saw how emotional that League Cup win was for Liverpool and I thought that this team is almost destined to win more titles this season. But it is no different with Bayer Leverkusen.

It's only a wish but I truly hope that they don't face each other in any of the next rounds before the final because the best final we can look forward to would be Bayer Leverkusen - Liverpool this season. It would be gigantic because if it is true that Liverpool wants Alonso, then that would be spectacular as Klopp would literally hand over his team to the future coach in a Europa League final. What a story that would be.

Just like you said, there's a possibility of smaller teams shocking the entire world of football by winning against teams that they weren't given a chance of winning but that I don't think is ever gonna happen in the UEFA Europa League round of 16 tie between German Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen and Azerbaijan club Qarabag. Bayer Leverkusen I think is the most consistent team in the competition at the moment as they've gone 32 games in all competitions without suffering a defeat so I don't think beating Qarabag to progress to next round of the competition will be a difficult task for Bayer Leverkusen.

As far as the history of European football is concerned, Brighton is simply not in the same level with Italian club AS Roma and despite the fact that Roma have been inconsistent since the start of the season, I think they're going to eliminate Brighton from the UEFA Europa League competition. The odd given to the both teams by bookmakers I think is disrespectful to Roma's standard however, it is based on the current form of both teams. Roma have more number of players with the experience of European than Brighton does and that's what I think gives them the edge against the English club because I European club competitions experience plays a major role.

Well, actually Brighton is not very consistent themselves. And That's why I doubt them. Personally, I do not believe this match is actually heavily favored for one team. I believe both of them have kind of the same chance to win this match. But we know that this is going to be played twice. I think in both legs the home team is going to have the advantage.

Not going to lie the miss from Lukaku was definitely hilarious . But I guess that could happen. The main thing is Roma is not looking confident at all. Well, at least they did not in that match. I believe Roma might be thinking about the domestic league a lot more instead of the Europa League and that is the only explanation for why they had that type of performance in the last Europa League match



I will say this, Brighton is in harder competition in the English Premier League compared to Roma in the Italian league. So I believe Brighton is going to be the one expected to win. But for me, this match could go either way. I do not trust Roma at the moment.

Sometimes, it is still possible for big teams or favorite teams to get unlucky results when they play against mediocre teams . But regarding Bayer Leverkusen this season, the reality is that Bayer Leverkusen has always managed to consistently produce good results, whether with 3 points or only 1 point . But yes, basically Bayer Leverkusen remains unbeaten so far this season, when playing against big teams and also when playing against mediocre teams. With considerations like that, of course Bayer Leverkusen will still have the ability to remain consistent and play well even though the opponent they will face is Qarabag. So, I think the miracle is not for Qarabag, but for Bayer Leverkusen because Bayer Leverkusen remained unbeaten and that is also a miracle.

Even in the first game, which will be held in Rome, Roma will only be a formal favorite:

2.45 - 3.28 - 2.80

Despite the fact that Brighton performs worse in the Premier League than Roma in Serie A, the difference in the level of the leagues apparently has an effect. The Premier League is rated much better. It seems to me that under Mourinho, Roma would have had more chances to win against Brighton, since in closed football there are always chances, but now, most likely, we will see BTTS in both games, and Brighton will go further.

I think Roma are quite likely to be eliminated from the Europa League quite early. Because Brighton are a really challenging opponent for them. You know how good Brighton were in the group stage as well. They have a squad including quite talented players. I must admit the drop in their form in the Premier League recently but they are still a big threat to Roma.

Roma are trying to get better after a manager change. However we saw how bad they were against Inter for example. They aren't very good especially defensively when it comes to big games. Thinking Brighton have effective attackers I don't see their chance low at all. 

Leverkusen is truly unbeatable at the moment. In the Bundesliga, Leverkusen has not lost so far. Even though the season has reached the middle and 23 matches have been played there. Bayern even recently lost to Leverkusen. So in my opinion the small teams in the European League will not be able to stop Leverkusen. So I am sure Leverkusen will qualify for the next stage in the European League. And next season, maybe Leverkusen will be a strong challenger in the Champions League.

Certainly on paper leverkusen is very superior to the opponents They face so I am quite sure that Xabi alonso will have no trouble bringing leverkusen to win the match against Qarabag. Leverkusen journey in the European league is very good because They have never experienced defeat in the european league so they will continue to maintain this rally in the round of 16.
leverkusen steps to become champions this season are wide open because their consistency will certainly be highly respected by their opponents.

If you look at Xabi Alonso performance, He certainly has quite effective tactic in defeating his opponents. Their main target is to win a prestigious trophy this season and if they are consistent then Xabi alonso will easily achieve his target this season. liverpool also had weak opponents in the round of 16 so They are also believed to not experience difficulties in the round of 16. apart from that, If these two team manage to progress with a good record by achieving two win in two leg. Then it is no doubt that we will be truly convinced by their performance to be able to reach the final this season.

I believe that Leverkusen will be able to play well in the first leg match against Qarabag and this can be guaranteed that Leverkusen will have the aggregate advantage to be able to win and qualify for the next round.
Moreover, they have previously met in two matches and all of them were won by Leverkusen. In the next two matches, I am also sure that Leverkusen can be like before, winning two matches at once.
Maybe Qarabag could have chance to win but that will only happen if they are lucky by having an unexpected surprise, it just that the chance of that happening is very small.
Xabi will prioritize all his players to be able to play at full strength to be able to maintain an immediate advantage in the first leg match.

Leverkusen is one of the strong candidates in the Europa League competition this season and they will really fight for this opportunity as best they can.
Moreover, in the group phase Leverkusen were also an unbeatable team, they really were team that could never have been imagined like this.

I agree with you that Qarabag is not a tough enough opponents for Leverkusen which is currently in a positive trend and I am sure that Qarabag will not necessarily be able to make thing difficult for Leverkusen even though they compete at their own home in the first leg, we can see the meeting between the two last season where Leverkusen was able to win 2 that meeting and Qarabag was unable to penetrate Leverkusen defense which was strong enough and at that time Leverkusen was being coached by Xabi Alonso. Whereas currently Leverkusen is much stronger compared to last season so I am very confident that Leverkusen can provide quite fierce resistance in the first leg and second leg and did not provide an opportunity for Qarabag to create an aggregate of more than 2 goal.

Of course, as a coach who has an accurate strategy, Xabi Alonso want to give the best for Leverkusen and can provide quite sweet memories if one day Xabi Alonso leaves the club, whether next season or the end of this seasons, because if Xabi Alonso is able to provide 2 very valuable trophies, then there will be many club chasing his signature and will pay a bigs enough salary so Xabi Alonso will consider him because after all money can talk

I think Qarabag might not be as good as Leverkusen right now. But we should remember that numbers don't always show everything. Every game can have surprises. Qarabag works hard and never gives up so they can still do well.
Leverkusen is expected to win, but it's important to see how Qarabag plays and if they can surprise everyone. Leverkusen hasn't lost any games in their league or UEFA League which is good but it doesn't mean they will win every time. There can be a team which can come up and can defeat Leverkusen.

Interesting fact about Qarabag FK, in this season (EL) they never failed to score since the Europa Qualifying round.
Also, last year they ever met Leverkusen twice in the EL group round where they have lost 5-1 (away) and 0-1 (home).
I admire Qarabag FK achievements in the EL, but Leverkusen performance now is on the other level and it will be easy for them to beat Qarabag.

Qarabag is not at Leverkusen's current level, but looking at the statistics, this team has high fighting power in every match. Yes, even though we know that maybe the winner is Leverkusen, we need to watch this match to see how well Qarabag can withstand Leverkusen's attack. Moreover, currently Leverkusen is unbeaten in the domestic league or UEFA League. I don't think Xabi will underestimate all teams from any continent because if they make a blunder they will be slapped by teams at Qarabag's level.