Sevilla looked a very professional side when knocking Roma out of the Europa League and are fancied to see off Wolves in the quarter-finals. Wanderers are another well-drilled outfit who play with plenty of spirit, but may just be a bit behind their Spanish opponents in overall quality.
Shakhtar Donetsk played some entertaining football in Wednesday’s defeat of Wolfsburg and may prove too hot for Basel to handle. The Swiss outfit did well to get past last season’s Europa League semi-finalists Eintracht Frankfurt but still look a touch limited at this level.
Rangers have hit the ground running this term and should prove too sharp for St Johnstone in Wednesday’s Scottish Premiership clash. With even Alfredo Morelos getting back on track over the weekend, Steven Gerrard’s men have already built up some strong early momentum.
Celtic suffered an early setback in their quest for a 10th straight Scottish Premiership title on Sunday and will be keen to tighten up when visiting St Mirren. The Hoops have won the last five head-to-head encounters between these teams, with Saints scoring in only one of those fixtures.
FC Copenhagen are expected to prove game, but outgunned opponents when taking on Manchester United in the Europa League quarter-finals. The Danish outfit have a direct style of play which may cause a few problems, but the Red Devils are still rated a class apart in Cologne.
Bayer Leverkusen only have to make a short trip to Dusseldorf for Monday’s Europa League quarter-final and are a value bet to edge out Inter. The Nerazzurri showed signs of fatigue after a long, hard season when getting the better of Getafe and the fear is this may prove one match too many.
Barcelona have stuttered a bit this season but past history suggests they should account for Napoli in the Champions League at Camp Nou. The Catalan giants have drawn away in the first leg of a European tie on 26 occasions, but eventually went on to progress in 21 of those encounters.
Chelsea face a mission impossible when visiting Bayern Munich in the Champions League, but we’re backing the Blues to at least salvage some pride. Frank Lampard’s men were crushed 3-0 in the first leg in London back in February but have continued to develop since returning from lockdown.
Juventus have work to do in Turin when trying to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit in their Champions League tie with Lyon. However, the Bianconeri showed enough in France to suggest they can get the job done against opponents who have looked fragile on the road at times.
As American soccer takes its first steps towards normality with the MLS is Back Tournament, we’ve used Football Manager 2020 to identify the next generation of young stars who could light up the league. We’ve compared the in-game attributes of all emerging MLS players aged 23 or under at the start of the game with their established counterparts.
Olympiakos performed with great credit during a 1-1 first-leg draw against Wolves in Greece after going down to 10 men with less than half an hour gone. Having knocked out Arsenal in the previous round via a 2-1 extra-time win in London, we feel they command plenty of respect at Molineux.
Rangers were outclassed by Leverkusen in the first leg of their Europa League tie at Ibrox but may salvage some pride in the return fixture. Steven Gerrard’s side have hit the ground running in the new Scottish season, whereas their opponents must overcome a month’s absence from competitive action.
Basel are holding all the aces against Eintracht Frankfurt after an impressive 3-0 away win in the first leg and can prevail again in Switzerland. The hosts are coming off a solid end to the Swiss season, whereas their opponents last featured in competitive action over a month ago.
Man Utd all but guaranteed themselves a place in the Europa League quarter-finals when beating LASK Linz 5-0 in Austria back in March. However, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will still be keen to pick up a positive result in the return fixture ahead of travelling to Germany for the closing stages.