Three British teams will be bidding to qualify for the next stage of the Europa League when the competition resumes next month. Manchester City, Rangers and Liverpool all play their first-legs of the Round of 32 during the week of February 14, with the reverse legs taking place a week later.
Rangers take on Sporting of Portugal at Ibrox in the first leg, with the two teams going into the ties with very different records behind them in Europe this season (Rangers 5/4 to qualify).
Sporting topped Group C in the Europa League, with four wins from their six games including an impressive 2-1 away win at Lille, who finished as the group’s other qualifiers. The Portuguese side scored 14 goals in the round as they won all their three home ties including a 5-1 thumping of Gent and a 5-0 win over Levski Sofia.
Sporting had a major blip in the play-off round when they lost their first leg 2-0 at home to Brondby and looked to be heading out. But they responded in style, winning 3-0 in the return in Denmark to go through.
Sporting sit third in the league thanks to four wins in their last six games, and have three in-form strikers. Helda Postiga and Carlos Saleiro have each scored four goals from nine games this season, while Yannick Djalo has three from 10.
Rangers’ lone success in Europe this season has come from a 1-0 home win over Bursaspor, though the only time they have been outclassed was in the 3-0 defeat to Valencia. They conceded just one goal over two games against Manchester United, so will come into the Europa League with some confidence (Rangers 66/1 to win Europa League).
Since their shock 2-0 defeat at home to Hibernian in November, Rangers have won five of their seven games, the only loss coming in the January 2 Old Firm game.
Manchester City will face a trip to Aris on February 15, with the Greeks having surprised many by pipping 2010 winners Atletico Madrid into the second qualification spot in Group B behind Bayer Leverkusen (City 1/8 to qualify).
Aris beat Atletico 1-0 at home and won the away game 3-2, so they deserved their place in the Round of 32. Fourth in the Greek Super League, Aris qualified by finishing fourth in last season’s play-offs.
The Thessaloniki-based side boast seven current internationals, including Christos Aravidis, Athanassios Prittas and Michaelis Sifakis of Greece and Toja of Colombia.
The Greeks have struggled for goals in their domestic league in the current season, but Croatian striker Danijel Cesarec has scored four in seven Europa League games.
City were level with Manchester neighbours United at the top of the Premier League going into this weekend’s fixtures, though having played two games more (City 4/1 favourites to win Europa League).
They will have few fears of going to Greece, having already won six Premier League games away from Eastlands and finished top of Group A in the last round.
City beat Lech Poznan 3-1 at home and Red Bull Salzburg 3-0 at the City of Manchester Stadium, and finished the group ahead of the Polish team on goal difference.
Roberto Mancini’s side have been second in the table for the past four weeks and went into this weekend’s games having won six of their last eight Premier League games.
Like City, Liverpool must start on the road when they go to Sparta Prague on February 17 (Liverpool 1/6 to qualify).
Sparta were a distant second to CSKA Moscow in Group F, losing just once but only winning two games. They beat Palermo 3-2 at home at Lausanne-Sport 3-1 away, but were well beaten 3-0 by the Russians in Moscow.
Sparta won the Gambrinus liga last season, as well as the Supercup, but are four points behind leaders Viktoria Plzen after the first 17 games of the current season.
Liverpool qualified for the Europa League by finishing seventh in the Premier League last season, but have been hugely disappointing in the first half of the current campaign and axed Roy Hodgson as manager earlier this month (Liverpool 13/2 to win Europa League).
The Liverpool supporters got their wish when legend Kenny Dalglish took over at the helm, but they will need to turn their season around quickly.
Liverpool completed a good 3-1 aggregate win over Trabzonspor in the play-off stage, having seen off Rabotnicki 4-0 in the qualifying round.
In the group stage, they finished top by three points over Napoli having been undefeated in their six games. They only conceded three goals in the round and enjoyed a 4-1 home win over Steaua Bucharest and beat Napoli 3-1 at Anfield.
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