Topic: ⚽UEFA Europa League Discussion Thread -- 2022/23 | Group Stages - page 8. (Read 15441 times)

Trabzonspor had an easy win tonight. 2-0 is an important score for the first match.
Trabzonspor will play the next match at home, which is advantageous for them. The second match will be easy for Trabzonspor.

Bayer Leverkusen was unbeaten until they faced Atalanta in the Europa League final which was one of the top matches last season. Atalanta thrashed Bayer Leverkusen 3 nil in the final and Lookman scored an hattrick which was one of his epic performances at top phase for his club. However that shocking defeats will not stop Leverkusen this season from meeting up with their opposition, they're coming for everything they didn't touch last season, Xabi Alonso focuses on the UEFA Champions League because it's their main target.

There is still time but Ajax can't still score a single goal after leaving 70 minutes behind. Unless Vojvodina score first as soon as possible, I guess it is too difficult for this game to end up with over 2.5 goals.

This is all on Ajax though.    They actually played 5 friendlies and showed good performances in most of them. But it's interesting to see them having this much difficulty in this game now.

They were really good in the 1st half but not good at all in the 2nd one. Probably they will still find a way to eliminate their competitor thanks to power gap but they should improve this performance immediately.

From today's games I took parlay of over 2.5 goals in Ajax - Vojvodina and Braga - Maccabi @1.72, I expect that favorites will not have much problems there. Also, put some money on Trabzonspor ML and over 2.5 on Pantahinaikos - Botev. And rest of money on ballance is for Conference league bets .

After what Hunedoara did in 1st round, you can't understimate them. Personally, I'm not sure about BTTS on this game, I expect that Rijeka will win without conceding a goal

A lot of awesome games today in Europa League and personally I will choose to watch Corvinul Hunedoara - Rijeka as few of us knew that Corvinul actually won Romanian Cup from Second Ligue and know they have a chance to qualify in Europa League groups. However , Rijeka is an experienced team with great players that know how to win important games but also qualifiers but I do see this game with both teams to score if someone wants to trow a bet on this game. 

I agree with you, Bayern Leverkusen already where the favorite side to win, and that was on everyone's lips, because looking at the parameters on ground as at then, they had more advantage, they just won the bundesliga with an incredible record of undefeated games, so who wouldn't go for Leverkusen.

 Atalanta approached the game with an entirely different spirit, they where just good at the midfield and defence, there attack was a different story because Ademola lookman wasn't a strikes the Leverkusen defence early took cognizance of, by the time they knew it, he had already singlehandedly scored 3 goals to seal the winning, and that was the only underlining defensive error xabi alonso didn't see  coming.

I remember when Sheriff could beat Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu but it's not the same Sheriff now... I'm betting that both teams will score tonight... I hope that Sheriff can score in a home game... I think the same thing will happen in the game Wisla vs Rapid...

FC Sheriff Tiraspol vs. IF Elfsborg – BTTS @1.69  ❌

Sheriff had trouble against a defensive-minded and physical team of Zira, but they got through.

Elfsborg took quite the opposite path, thanks in part to Paphos' two red cards in both matches. The Swedes are a very direct, attacking side which should lead to an end-to-end open game with goals i think. Elfsborg's last 5 matches in all competitions have seen a total of 25 goals, hope that the high-goalscoring trend continues today.

No, I think I haven't saw such thing, can't remember. Anddespite that Tobol scored early goal today, it didn't helped them to make an comeback and game ended 1:0
Made some money for going with over 2.5 in Zira - Sheriff and ElfSborg - Paphos games. Sheriff doesn't looks so good like in previousseasons, they made it to the next round only after penalties. After all, they're not even champions of Moldova.
Interesting thing that Hunedoara, team from 2nd division of Romania continue their journey. In 1st leg away they destroyed Paks 4:0 and now loss 0:2 was enough to reach next round.
Next round we have some big boys joining fight - Ajax, Braga or Trabzonspor

Bump! 

Have you ever seen a team score four goals from corners in one match?

I just finished watching the Ruzomberok vs Tobol 1st leg highlights, and the Slovaks scored four, yes four, goals from corners...this might be the weirdest thing i've ever seen, and it's probably a record as well.

Tobol players seemed completely lost defending these crosses. I'm not saying Ruzomberok will do the same today, but it's not something you can fix within a week, Tobol is certainly vulnerable on set-pieces.

I'm taking BTTS here, not because of ^^^ .....it's hard to erase a three-goal deficit, you have to be on the front foot from the first minute. Expect Ruzomberok to catch them off-guard on a counter, 1.64 odds decent enough for me.

It's really unfortunate he will leave Atalanta, he joined Atalanta since 2016, he already in Atalanta for 8 years. Although he never bring any trophies except this one, but Atalanta isn't a strong team, so with this winning Atalanta's fans will keep remembering Gasperini as one of best coach.

Probably this is a win-win solution for both of them, Atalanta want a fresh new manager and Gasperini can manage other big team...

Actually I would rather see Leverkusen win the UEL trophy than Atalanta, but this is football, there are always surprises that make initial predictions very far from the results achieved on the field. Atalanta success in winning the UEL was because the players' mentality was very strong, their performance was also very good this season. You can see how they played when they beat Liverpool, the Atalanta players' motivation and ambition were very high to win the match.

Atalanta players managed to show the same performance when facing Leverkusen in the final, they also humiliated Leverkusen with a score of 3-0. Atalanta success cannot be separated from the role of Gasperini who always wants to make Atalanta a club to be reckoned with and able to provide competition in the title race. If he really leaves Atalanta to coach Napoli, Atalanta will lose the most influential figure in their squad like when Spalletti left Napoli some time ago.

While like the whole world were favouring Leverkusen for lifting the EL trophy we got a surprising result.    I also thought like maybe we would see these teams weighing each other and there wouldn't be many goals.

But here we are! Atalanta really deserved that trophy 100%. Lookman got all the spotlight on himself by a gigantic effort. Maybe he is the player of critical times? 

Gasperini is speculated to leave Atalanta to join Napoli. It is going to be a nice way of saying goodbye for him with this trophy.

Atalanta was the team that made this year's winner lose, wow, it really wasn't a match as expected. Lookman sealed the match with his goals. I have never seen Bayern Leverkusen so helpless, I'm talking about this season. Xabi Alanso fell victim to wrong game analysis and wrong choices. Atalanta fought throughout the match and did not lose their resistance and tried to play ahead even when they were ahead. Bayern Leverkusen remained at a very low tempo, compared to Atalanta, I think they did not expect Atalanta's constant pressure and they had a mental collapse because they could not play their own game. Bayern Leverkusen fans supported their team until the end of the match, which has another beautiful side.

The moment Lookman bottle brace against Leverkusen, it was all written over Xavi Alonso face that the guy has destroyed what he single handedly carry from the beginning of the season. The guy made it look easy to make history as first player to score hatrick in history of European final, that was crazy. The goal would have been more but some were over the bar. I think man is definitely going to win the next African best player award considering what he has done this season.

I don't know if I should blame entire Leverkusen or just blame only Xavi Alonso, the way the players were running on that field looks like they weren't even ready, they didn't look serious or too focus, the defense was loose because Lookman penetrate it like it was nothing, man was displaying Mbape of Africa yesterday. Xavi would have made substitute for that defenders atleast to prevent further damage immediately the brace but he didn't and they went lose for the third time.

Exactly, the performance is truly stunning. 3 goals from himself, and this was in the UEFA Europe League final, not the domestic league. In the transfer market, he will definitely become one of the new targets for other big clubs and the price will definitely be quite high. Yes, that's because, apart from being a club competition event, a big league like this, especially in the final match, is also an opportunity for each player to show their best abilities. Yes, it just remains to be seen how he will appear in the future.

Ahh, finally, Atalanta really beat Leverkusen this season, broke the unbeaten record of Leverkusen, and took the trophy. Really appreciate Atalanta's performance and intelligence in optimizing their chances, which in fact were quite small, but actually brought big wins. Yes, because if we look at the statistics alone, they are not good enough, especially if we look at ball possession, far below Leverkusen. but in the end, it actually gave them an opportunity for a counter attack that couldn't be resisted.



Just look at the statistics, Atalanta only had 33% ball possession, and what's more, they didn't pass much. However, if you look at their attacks, shots and shots on target, it is actually the opposite, much more. So indeed this time, Atalanta was really impressive, because they were able to optimize this opportunity to provide significant attacks with quite a bit of ball possession. The effectiveness of their attacks is very good and accurate here.

Yeah 10/1 odds after the second goal had me really, really tempted. They've been behind 2 goals 7 or 8 times this season and always came back -- only problem was, those comebacks usually result in draws and 4/1 just didn't interest me at all.

Call it inexperience on the big stage. Or the treble/quadruple dream that kills all but the most experienced sides. Liverpool knows how that feels like...

Seems that most of us were waiting for Bayer comeback after they were down 2:0. After similar things already happened many times this season. They were in even more complicated situation, like against Qarabag (you can see full long list of their late goals there https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/1cf1502/bayer_leverkusens_90_minute_goals_this_season/?rdt=64309). But this time it didn't happened.
It wasn't same Bayer as we saw all season long. Wouldn't say that Atalanta played phenomenal game, Lookman simply used every moment that he had, Atalanta fully deserved to win this trophy. Gasperini turned mediacore team into big force and finally his efforts were rewarded with a trophy.

Kudos to Atlanta it has not been easy for them, and to Bayern Leverkusen as well for having a good performance today. Even if Bayern Leverkusen did not win the Europa cup they have won the Bundesliga and that's enough to celebrate for a season well played. Meanwhile Lookman has had his first ever hat trick in a final competition not just that but a hattrick  in the Europa competition. He has represented his club well today and he has also represent his country's Nigeria. Soo enough we will be hearing news of interest in buying the talented player.

You're not the only one to think about this. I also assume there is something wrong with the starting lineup of Leverkusen. They don't have Boniface as their main striker there, Boniface is on the bench. This is something no sense for me. Why Xabi Alonso sends their best striker on the bench? He also doesn't use Patrik Schick as their second best striker.

Atalanta is an Italian team, all Italian teams have strong defenders. It is just annoying to see Leverkusen playing with no sharp strikers. Ideally, Xabi Alonso must play with 2 strong strikers (both Boniface and Patrik Schick). If he used both the strikers, this will make Leverkusen playing more offensive and create many opportunities.

I think Wirtz has no problem with his performance. He has no good partners in the attacking line, Adli isn't a typical player who has great attacking as Boniface and Patrik Schick.

I don't want to say Xabi Alonso a bit underestimates Atalanta but it is what I see from the starting lineup. Leverkusen played perfectly before this match, I think it make them to be overconfident. This must be a big lesson for Xabi Alonso and the players.