Topic: UEFA Europa League 2023/24 Season - page 354. (Read 58914 times)

I think Milan being favorites for bookies doesn't solely rely on their current form but also factors in historical performance, squad strength, and overall reputation. Bookmakers consider various aspects beyond recent results. While Milan might not have performed as expected in certain instances, the game's nature is such that even favorites face obstacles, and surprises are inherent to football tournaments.

The comeback against Newcastle to secure a place in the Europa League emphasizes Milan's ability to fight back and turn unfavorable situations in their favor. Comebacks often showcase a team's mental strength and determination and also qualities that can be crucial in knockout stages where resilience is highly valued. The ability to bounce back from setbacks are all factors that contribute to Milan's status as favorites.

They are free to choose which team to be the champion of UEL. I can understand if they think AC Milan may have the chance to win UEL because AC Milan performance in UCL last season. AC Milan could reach the semi final round, it proved that AC Milan is a strong team. However, I think AC Milan is no longer as strong as the last season, there is some changes in AC Milan squad. If we compare the stats of all teams in UEL, Leverkusen is simply the most favorite team to win the UEL.

Both AC Milan and Roma have weaknesses. If Roma has a little weakness, they must be among the top 3 teams in Serie A standings. 
In my humble opinion, there is 1 fatal weaknesses of AS Roma that may lead them to eliminate in the knock-out round, it is the bad mentality of the players. If you checked some of the match of AS Roma, they even got defeats from small teams.

If we refer to the options provided by bookmakers, it is clear that Galatasaray is superior to Sparta Prague. even though it is still temporary, remember that Galatasaray is able to put up quite a good fight in the Champions League. it would be very natural if Galatasaray were superior in this knockout stage match, rather than their opposing team. even though it is true that Sparta Prague cannot be underestimated, in the first leg Galatasaray had the opportunity to overthrow Sparta at Rams Park, Galatasaray's home ground. also, it is supported by the odds provided by the bookie. actually, I don't dare speculate too far. moreover, I don't really follow Sparta Prague's developments, but they also cannot be underestimated. in football, anything can happen. however, ideally, Galatasaray should be able to qualify for the next round. considering that they previously played at a higher level of competition than the Europa League, Galatasaray has the conditions to qualify for the next phase. unfortunately, this is only a temporary assumption, because the meeting between these two teams still has a time lag. at least, Sparta Prague will prepare themselves for the meeting against Galatasaray later. I haven't checked the other playoff round matches, but the Galatasaray match should provide an exciting spectacle for us to enjoy when the match is held.

Milan is and should be the favorite to win that matchup between them. The Milan team is more experienced and is not doing badly in their league either. But they were supposed to be doing better than this in Serie A. Rennes on the other hand are doing very bad in their league. Although Rennes did well in the Europa League, I don't think it's enough to beat AC Milan. AC Milan can and will win the match in my opinion.

Ligue 1 is not even that competitive and Rennes are struggling. So it's fair to say they are not in their best form. AC Milan, although struggling, are far better than Rennes.

Milan are really one of the top favourites for bookies now but I don't think so honestly. I mean there are more effectively playing teams until things come to Milan. I didn't like Milan in the Champions League much. Because they were supposed to perform better and collect more points technically. They were a very experienced team with a decent squad.

I know that their group was a group of death but they should have been able to be more competitive while even PSG were struggling. They even made it to the Europa League thanks to a comeback in their last match against Newcastle. If I don't see any more improvement from them I wouldn't get surprised in case of an early elimination of them. 

Galatasaray was matched with Sparta Prague. Galatasaray is the favorite of this game.
As a Galatasaray fam myself, I think we will beat Sparta Prague.
There's still a long time until the first game, I hope we can play better and get a comfortable win.

Basically Rennes is not too strong compared to Milan this season in their respective domestic leagues, so personally I think Milan has a big chance to qualify with a good goal difference to the next round of the Europa League. Milan are too good to fail to progress to the next round, but I hope they don't lose a bit of focus this season after failing in the Champions League too quickly.

Rennes is a team that is in the top 10 in Ligue 1, their defense is not very strong and their goal productivity is also not that extraordinary. I'm sure Milan can beat Rennes in their two meetings this season in Europe, but something different could also happen considering that Milan is not very consistent in terms of performance.

Predicting when the match time is still a bit long seems a little difficult because of course a lot will change, but if it's just a temporary prediction, maybe Rennes could be a strong opponent for Milan, but I never doubt Milan's performance because this club is also very experienced and very it is easy to beat Rennes and I am very confident that Milan can easily beat Rennes.
But what you need to pay attention to is that Rennes has a very strong attack line. We can compare the statistical results of the two clubs from different competitions because Rennes can score 13 scores in European league matches while Milan can only score 5 scores in the Champions League.
Even though it's not fair to compare the two competitions, for me this is the only way we can predict because comparing with performances in the domestic league very difficult and for me less accurate.

Milan - Rennes could also be a nice matchup by the way. Milan are technically the favourite side of the matchup to advance to next round. However Rennes have had a really good Europa League phase so far. They lost only to Villarreal in the group but in both matches at the same time. However the losses weren't by a big score difference either.

Milan are shown as the 3rd biggest favourite team to win the Europa League championship. But they can be quite inconsistent just like they were in the Champions League.

Rennes can be a really dangerous opponent for them in case of such situation. I would expect Milan to win home by a small margin but who knows what would happen in France.   

In essence, I think Copenhagen are clearly still better than Galatasaray and I admit that. Although indeed, in terms of quality at least Galatasaray look better than Copenhagen . But ya, the fact is not the case because after all, the fact is that Copenhagen also managed to be unbeaten by Galatasaray in the last group phase . Because ya, in the first meeting Copenhagen managed to hold Galatasaray to a draw with a score of 2-2 and in the last match of the group stage, in fact Galatasaray still lost by Copenhagen with a score of 1-0.

So yes, with that results Galatasaray has like that at least it is not too impressive either, when Galatasaray plays against a team that at least has a quality that is not much different . So at least,playing against Sparta Prague in the Europa League play off this time also does not seem to fully guarantee for Galatasaray to win. Because ya, it seems that Galatasaray maybe not have a good enough mentality for a decisive match like this.

I agree with you. I watched Galatasaray's players perform in the Champions League group stage. This team has performed quite well in the Champions League. Galatasaray's performance was good enough in all 4 matches against Copenhagen and Manchester United. But the team failed to qualify for the knockout round due to tactical weaknesses and minor mistakes. However, I consider Galatasaray as the favorite in the Europa League. And I'd say this team can be considered favorites for the Europa League title as well. Even if they don't win the title, I think Galatasaray can continue their winning streak until they face Leverkusen, Liverpool and Roma.

Galatasaray are better than Sparta Prague, I admit that but Galatasaray are not better than Liverpool. Galatasaray's challenge is to beat Sparta Prague to qualify for the next round, but I think the match will not be as easy as you imagine. A team like Sparta Prague will make their best effort to win the match so that their chances of qualifying for the next round remain good, but considering that Galatasaray has been quite good in several previous Champions League matches, Galatasaray can be considered the favorite.

Some of the matches in this qualifying round are quite interesting, Roma vs Feyenoord and Marseille vs Shakhtas are two good examples, but Milan vs Rennes is no less good. Milan, Galatasaray, Roma and Marseille are some of the favorites who will probably progress to the next round, while I'm not sure who is worthy of being the favorite in some of the other matches.

Galatasaray has made a good performance this season and just like you said I also like watching there matches and seeing how they have improve on this season compare to there other seasons and also I love there performance on the champions League because they really put an effort to qualify but could not, I actually felt pity on them because there last match against Copenhagen it was very tough for the both but however Galatasaray was not strong enough to beat Copenhagen but although the red card that was given to Copenhagen was towards the last minute of the match because if it was during the early time of the match Galatasaray would have utilized the opportunity and qualify to another round of the champions League.

Both Leverkusen and Liverpool are 2 teams that have real improved based on their last season’s performance and you can see from their match performance in Europe and also their respective leagues. The sweetest is that they’re both in the UEL and it’ll be one sweet thing if they’re both in the final. Cause it would be more interesting, propably one of the most interesting UEL finals there could be.

 Yes, it’s quite hard predicting their fate at this early stage but based on current form I think Leverkusen has the upper hands but when you go with experience Liverpool will be taking the trophy home. If Xabi Alonso would be able to lead this team to another final, I think he’ll go down with gold as one of their best coaches and that’s what he’s gunning for with the performance his boys.

Actually, if we re-watch the Galatasaray vs Copenhagen match we can see that statistically Galatasaray performed quite well. But it seems they are out of luck. I don't underestimate Copenhagen but if I think about it that night Copenhagen was lucky to score a goal by Lerager which meant that Galatasaray had to play in the European league. It was a shame that Lerager received a red card in that match so he couldn't play in the first leg.

Galatasaray being compared to Slavia is one comparism that will hold many arguments especially as both teams are doing quite well in their league but the issue is that Galatasaray could make mistakes which are mostly costly. If you take a glance at the UCL for Galatasaray, they made silly mistakes which threw them to the UEL but for the match against Slavia, I think it’ll all be determined when we see how the 1st leg fixtures goes.

 Slavia has been unbeaten in the league and are very good in the UEL and they must not be underrated because they could cause Galatasaray some worry. Well like I said for this fixture, we’ll most likely know the preferred team to qualify after the 1st leg, however based on Slavia's good form in the tournament already, i believe they've got more advantage than Galatasaray, despite the fact that Galatasaray came from the UCL.

Galatasaray is the favorite in this playoff match, and it seems that almost all bettors believe that the one who will qualify for the last 16 of the European league is Galatasaray, who even when in the champion league had a chance to qualify from the group phase but the last match belonged to Copenhagen, which was the home team in the last match, the thing that could make this team from the Turkish league fail is if they are careless about the ability of opponents who, although not seeded, still have a chance to turn things around. If they win in the playoffs, Galatasaray will be a team that can give a threat to any team because they have the ability to do it.

Enough to agree that the European League this season is quite interesting because there is Liverpool, a team who used to compete in the Champions League and European competed they were quite good and if Sevilla could be in the European League would be even more interesting whether there would be a team that could break their dominance in the European League final.

Galatasaray does looks stronger when compared to its opponent Salvia Praha, but we also can't just underestimate Slavia Praha because if we look at Slavia Praha in the domestic league this club is also a top club in the domestic league and we have never seen these two clubs met. Maybe if the two have already met, it will be easier for us to analyze by looking at statistical data and seeing which club has a bigger chances of winning the matches.

In the Champions League group phase, Galatasaray was the favorite when compared to Copenhagen and many thought that Galatasaray was able to qualify for the next rounds with Bayern Munich, but in reality Copenhagen was able to qualify for the next round of the Champions League with Bayern Munich and prove that they were stronger. If we compare Galatasaray, we cannot judge just because we see that Galatasaray is stronger than Slavia Praha because Galatasaray and Slavia Praha still have a chances to qualify and proved which club is more worthy of qualifying.

Exactly, both of them this season have appeared very impressive and of course full of many surprises because last season they were not as good as they are now and now they are very strong team in the Premier League and also the Bundesliga.
Seeing two team that are in strong condition and full of surprises will definitely be very interesting when they meet in the final match, when choosing the two it feels very difficult to decide correctly but my heart goes to Leverkusen.
As long as Leverkusen can remain stable and perform consistently then they will be strong team, after all Leverkusen also has very good defense and front line so far.
Just look, they are still the unbeaten team in the Bundesliga for almost half this season and for the Europa League they are also still the unbeaten team in the group phase.
We will see how Leverkusen gets rid of their opponents in the round of 16 and last 8 later.

Of course, because none of the team that were eliminated from the UCL seem to look very strong, anyone who is in the top 3 of the UCL and will compete in the Europa League play-off round will still be very easy to beat by Leverkusen.
If this hope is truly achieved then Xabi Alonso will become coach whose name will stick out, he will become one of the best coaches of all time in German football, especially for Leverkusen.

Galatasaray is actually playing very well this season. in the Turkish league currently ranked 2, although ranked 2 but the points obtained by Galatasaray are the same as Fenerbache 44 points.
And the galatasaray squad also has many star players there are Mauro Icardi former PSG and inter Milan players. there is Wilrfred Saha former Crystal Palace and very productive also when playing at Crystal Palace. Lucas Toreira Athletico Madrid player, there is Tanguy Dombele former Hotspur player and more.