UEFA Europa League Matchday Two Preview

Pressure on Gerrard’s Rangers after fluffing their lines on Matchday 1

It was arguably one of if not the game of Matchday One in the 2021/22 UEFA Europa League group stage and it was a contest from Steven Gerrard and Rangers FC’s perspective that they would rather forget. The Gers went down at Ibrox 2-0 in the opening game of Group A to Peter Bosz’s Olympique Lyonnais courtesy of goals from Karl Toko-Ekambi and an own goal from James Tavernier. A result which already puts the French Ligue 1 side in a strong position to qualify for the knockout round.

However, the pressure is now very much on the Glaswegian giants. Gerrard’s troops now face a trip to the Czech Republic’s capital to take on Sparta Prague. Sparta currently lie third in the Czech First League, currently trailing fierce rivals Slavia and Viktoria Plzen in the standings. Rangers, on the other hand, sealed a place in the semi-finals of the Scottish League Cup last midweek with a 2-0 win over Livingston and go into the match top of the Scottish Premiership.

In the other Matchday Two encounter from Group A, Lyon will be looking to consolidate their position as group favourites on home turf against 2020/21 Danish Superliga champions Brondby. After a slow start, Peter Bosz’s side are now up to 7^th in Ligue 1 after three victories in their last five matches domestically. The aforementioned Ekambe’s goal in Matchday 1’s victory over Rangers was a lovely curled effort into the bottom corner and the Zimbabwean attacker will be hoping to impress yet again.

A Game of the Matchday contender in Group B

Group B’s opening matchday saw Ligue 1’s AS Monaco defeat Austrian Bundesliga outfit Sturm Graz 1-0 at the Stade Louis II and PSV Eindhoven and Real Sociedad cancel each other out with a 2-2 draw at Phillips Stadion. The latter was one of the games of Matchday 1 and Group B has thrown up another contender for the game of Matchday 2 in the shape of Real Sociedad vs AS Monaco at Reale Arena in San Sebastian.

La Real are currently defying the odds in La Liga in impressive style. Currently sitting 2^rd in the standings ahead of La Liga heavyweights Sevilla FC and more notably FC Barcelona with only one loss from their opening six La Liga matches. Coach Imanol Alguacil’s exploits are even more impressive when one considers the injury issues currently affecting Txuri-Urdin at present. Currently on La Real’s injury list include Carlos Fernandez, Nacho Monreal, Asier Illarramendi, Diego Rico, Ander Barrenetxea, David Silva, Alexander Isak and Alexander Sorloth.

Niko Kovac’s Monaco are now up to 8^th in Ligue 1 after a 3-1 away victory over Clermont Foot last weekend. Based on league position and having home advantage, La Real could be viewed as favourites at first glance. However, as aforementioned Real Sociedad are battling an injury crisis at present, Monaco do look to be climbing the table after a slow start and the principality outfit have quality throughout their entire squad.

In the other match in the group, Sturm Graz take on PSV Eindhoven at Stadion Graz-Liebenau. Sturm have so far been the best of the chasing pack behind RB Salzburg in the Austrian Bundesliga, currently lying second in the table. For Sturm, anything other than a victory here could make even finishing for third place and dropping into the Europa Conference League knockouts difficult. For PSV, victory is a must to give them a strong chance of making the Europa League knockouts.

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The two competition favourites can put down a strong qualification marker in Group C

Group C already on Matchday 1 saw the two pre-tournament and pre-Champions League dropout favourites clash in the shape of SSC Napoli and Leicester City. The match certainly did not disappoint, the Foxes racing into a two-goal lead courtesy of strikes from Ayoze Perez and Harvey Barnes. However, Luciano Spaletti’s troops pegged back the current English FA Cup winners courtesy of a double salvo from Nigerian striker Victor Oshimen.

Both Napoli and Leicester have excellent opportunities to lay down a strong marker for qualification on Matchday Two. Partenopei face a Spartak Moscow side reeling from the back of a shock 1-0 home loss against Legia Warsaw on Matchday One at Otkritie Arena. Whereas Leicester face a trip to Poland to face a Legia side who despite that win over Spartak have not been in great form domestically, currently lying only 14^th in the Polish Ekstraklasa. Legia also go into the contest on the back of a 3-2 home loss to Rakow Czestochowa.

Both the group favourites do go into their clashes in very different domestic form, Napoli currently top Serie A having won 6 games straight, whereas Leicester only lie 12^th in the English Premier League after a home 2-2 draw versus Burnley, having won only two league matches so far. Nonetheless, Matchday Two could should both Napoli and Leicester emerge victorious represent a great chance for both to take control of this group.

A Greco-Turkish encounter one of the highlights of Matchday Two from Group D

Matchday Two in Group D sees one of the games of the group stage take place when current Greek Super League champions Olympiacos Piraeus take on the Turkish Super Lig’s Fenerbache SK. The Greek top-flight has only just started, nonetheless, Olympiacos top the standings with three wins and a draw from their opening four matches.

Like Olympiakos, Fenerbache head into the contest top of their own domestic league, goals from Diego Rossi and Filip Novak giving them a 2-1 victory away at Hatayspor on Matchday Seven of the Turkish Super Lig. Another intriguing dynamic to the fixture is that both teams have Portuguese managers. Pedro Martins is now into his fourth season as Olympiacos manager, whereas a familiar name in the shape of Vitor Pereira is in charge of Fener for the second time.

Expect an electric atmosphere at the Sukru Saracoglu Stadium with plenty of recognisable faces in line to feature for both sides such as: Tomas Vaclik, Mathieu Valbuena, Rony Lopes, Yann M’Vila, Enner Valencia, Diego Rossi, Luiz Gustavo, Max Meyer and Mesut Ozil. With Olympiacos having won their Matchday One contest 2-1 at home against Royal Antwerp, a victory here puts the Greeks in a strong position to qualify. After Fener’s 1-1 away draw at Eintracht Frankfurt on Matchday One, a win for Sari Kanaryalar here will enhance their knockout round qualification chances.

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Could revenge be in the eyes of Lokomotiv for 1999 on Matchday Two in Group E?

When one looked on paper before Matchday One at all four teams involved in Group E, it would have been easy to earmark both SS Lazio and Olympique de Marseille as the two favourites to progress to the Europa knockouts. Many even would have had both sides as dark horses to win it.

However, both sides got an indication that this may be tougher than it first looks on Matchday One. Englishman Tino Anjorin, on loan from Chelsea FC struck a lovely long-range late equaliser for Lokomotiv Moscow in a 1-1 draw against L’OM at RZhD Arena. Whereas, Maurizio Sarri’s Lazio lost 1-0 away to Galatasaray SK courtesy of a dreadful goalkeeping mistake and own goal by Albanian keeper Thomas Strakosha.

Both the group favourites will look to get themselves back on track on Matchday Two on home soil. The intriguing subplot involves the contest between Lazio and Lokomotiv at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome. In April 1999 both sides met in the semi-finals of the now defunct UEFA Cup Winners Cup. After a tight game in Moscow in the first leg, Lokomotiv took the lead on 61 minutes courtesy of a Zaza Janashia strike. However, Lazio, at the time, coached by former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson equalised on 77 minutes with an away goal courtesy of Alen Boksic.

A 0-0 draw between the sides two weeks later in the Italian capital saw Lazio progress to the final on the away goals rule where they defeated Real Mallorca in the final and became the competition’s last ever winners. Lokomotiv as a result narrowly missed out on being the first-ever Russian winners of a European club competition. It won’t be easy away at the Stadio Olimpico, however, can Lokomotiv claim some long time revenge over Lazio with a shock victory?

Expect another tight and tense set of fixtures in a tough to call Group F

One of the big games in the pre-Matchday One, strongly perceived to be wide open Group F was Red Star Belgrade vs SC Braga. The Serbian outfit at their iconic Rajko Mitic Stadium in Belgrade ran out 2-1 winners courtesy of goals from Milan Rodic and Aleksandar Katai. It proved another good result in Europe for their coach, former Inter Milan great Dejan Stankovic, backing up an honourable loss on away goals in the Europa League Round of 32 in 2020/21 to Italian giants AC Milan.

Red Star on Matchday Two travel to Bulgaria to face perennial champions Ludogorets Razgrad, coached by Lithuanian Valdas Dambrauskas, who between 2007 and 2010 managed London Tigers FC in the English non-league pyramid. Braga, who are likely once again to finish best of the rest in fourth place behind Portuguese football’s Os Tres Grandes have a fixture at home against Danish outfit FC Midtjylland.

For Os Arcebispos, the match against the Danes at Estadio Municipal is a must-win given their opening loss to Red Star. Ludogorets drew away 1-1 against Midtjylland on Matchday One and a win on home soil against Red Star would really open the group up. If Red Star were to emerge victorious, it would vastly enhance their qualification chances. With this group looking very even and tight, expect the unexpected on Matchday Two.

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Pressure on Postecoglou and Celtic in Group G

Arguably the game of the entire Matchday One came at the Estadio Benito Villamarin where Real Betis emerged victorious over Celtic FC 4-3 in a topsy-turvy encounter in Seville. The Bhoys have not enjoyed a great start domestically under new Australian manager Ange Postecoglou, having suffered recent defeats to both fierce rivals Rangers and Livingston in the Scottish Premiership. Losses which already after seven matchdays see them six points behind league leaders Rangers.

Matchday Two’s home encounter against Bayer Leverkusen will only heighten the pressure on Postecoglou and it may well be a must-win for Celtic if they are to have a strong chance of making the Europa League knockouts. It will be a difficult task though, given Werkself go into the fixture in second place in the Bundesliga having enjoyed a terrific start under new manager Gerardo Seoane. Having come from behind to win 2-1 at home in their opening Matchday One contest against Hungarians Ferencvaros, a win for Bayer over The Bhoys would leave them in a strong position to qualify for the knockout rounds.

Real Betis on the other hand face a trip to Hungary’s capital Budapest to face Ferencvaros. After a difficult opening few games in La Liga, Manuel Pellegrini’s Betis are now in much better form, currently sitting 6^th in La Liga after a 2-0 home victory last weekend over Getafe CF. Like Bayer, a win here for Verdiblancos will leave them in a strong position to qualify for the knockout rounds.

A potentially decisive Matchday Two in Group H

Finally, we head off to Group H and what could prove a potentially decisive Matchday Two. After a 2-0 away win over Dinamo Zagreb at the Maksimir Stadium on Matchday One, West Ham United started their return to European competition with a bang. The Hammers also currently lie 7^th in the Premier League with the extra complication of juggling European fixtures and domestic matches in 2021/22 so far being negotiated impressively by David Moyes’ troops.

West Ham’s Matchday Two encounter sees them face Rapid Vienna at the London Stadium. Last season’s Austrian Bundesliga runners-up have endured a difficult start to the domestic season in Austria and lost their opening Matchday One Europa League encounter at home against KRC Genk. A result which puts Die Gruen-Weissen under firm pressure as a second loss against West Ham would severely hamper their chances of qualification for the Europa knockouts.

In the group’s other Matchday Two fixture, Dinamo Zagreb travel to Belgium to take on Genk. Another match which pits a side on zero points playing away against a side on three points, avoiding defeat here is paramount for the Croatian champions and last season’s Europa Quarter finalists if they harbour serious hopes of making the knockouts. It won’t be easy against Genk, however, who currently lie 3^rd in the Belgian Pro League A. Wins for West Ham and Genk would mean both have one leg in the Europa League knockout rounds.