Europa League Knockout Tournament
This is a Europa League campaign like no other…
But up until the last 16 everything was as normal.
Group games were played in packed stadiums with fans travelling to as far as Kazakhstan to watch their team play.
The Round of 32 was (as always) played out in two legs, one home and one away, as clubs like Ajax, Arsenal and Celtic were surprisingly knocked-out.
It was the first leg of the Round of 16 where things changed.
Most games were behind closed doors and the two games involving Spanish clubs didn’t go ahead at all.
Then due to COVID, the competition was put on pause.
The restructured mini tournament is to be held in neutral territory, with no fans and just one-legged ties.
First was the small matter of the last 16 second legs and in the case of Sevilla and Real Betis, one-off games held in Germany.
There were no major upsets in this as both English sides progressed and Rangers failed to overturn their heavy deficit against Bayer Leverkusen, setting up the tournaments Ferrari paced finale just nicely.
Via @EuropaLeague on Twitter
What is the tournament structure and what are the host stadiums?
The mini tournament which will be played in Germany, starts on Monday the 10th of August and finishes on Friday the 21st August.
The stadiums that the tournament will be played in are Schalke’s Arena AufSchalke, Koln’s RheinEnergieStadion, the MSV-Arena in Duisburg and the Merkur Spiel-Arena in Dusseldorf.
The 2019/20 Europa League Final will now be played in the RheinEnergieStadion in Cologne instead of the originally planned host city Gdansk.
The quarter finals of the tournament will be on the 10th/11th of August, with the semis on the 16th/17th and then the final on the 21st August.
Who remains in the tournament?
The first two quarter finals on Monday evening are Inter Milan vs Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester United vs FC Copenhagen.
The final two quarter finals the following day are Wolves vs Sevilla and Basel vs Shakthar Donetsk.
The first semi-final will be the winners of Manchester United/FC Copenhagen vs the winners of Wolves/Sevilla, meaning it could be an all English affair.
The second semi-final will be the winner of Inter Milan/Bayer Leverkusen vs the winner of Basel/Shakhtar Donetsk.
It then goes without saying that the final will be between the winners of those two semi-finals.
But it will be unlike any previous Europa League Final.
The usual carnival like atmosphere will be replaced with the eerie silence of an empty stadium.
Who are the favourites to win it?
I think there are a few key matches that will determine this years final because on paper, Inter Milan and Manchester United are the biggest favourites.
However, whilst Inter Milan face a challenging quarter-final against Bayer Leverkusen, Manchester United will have a very difficult semi-final if they get past FC Copenhagen, who finished second in the Danish Superliga this season.
If they do beat Copenhagen like most would expect them to then they will face an arguably more challenging semi-final than Inter will if they progress.
Manchester United will play either fellow Premier league club Wolves or 3-time Europa League winners Sevilla.
Either opponent will be tough to beat but far from impossible.
Manchester United will be back in the Champions League next season and will face bigger clubs than Wolves and Sevilla.
What makes winning the Europa League more important to Wolves and Sevilla, however, is that they both need to win it to qualify for the Champions League, something that Manchester United and Inter Milan have already secured.
Having said all that, I struggle to look past both Inter Milan and Manchester United to make the final and what a final it would be.
Conte has signed several players from Manchester United since his arrival and even more Premier League players.
It would be interesting to see how Manchester United cast-offs Sanchez, Lukaku and Young do against their former club.
For me with a slightly favourable draw, Inter Milan are the favourites to win the competition under the passionate and often brilliant man management of Antonio Conte.
However, they must first get past a Leverkusen side that are very dangerous on the counter-attack and hold the ace of spades in their ranks with Chelsea bound Kai Havertz.
There is greater uncertainty of the outcome of this competition without fans present.
The tournament playing on neutral territory (other than Leverkusen) and the ever-present possibility with COVID that a club might have to pull out.
Yet it’s an August festival of football which in a small way makes up for the postponement of the Euros and gives football fans one more thing to look forward to before the Premier League restart in September.