Bayer Leverkusen’s excellent away form could be enough to see them win through to the quarter-finals of the Europa League at Villarreal’s expense.
The Yellow Submarine hold a narrow 3-2 advantage from last week’s first leg in Germany but they cannot rest on their laurels as Bayer’s record on the road this season is phenomenal.
In the Bundesliga, they have won nine of their 13 away matches while in Europe they have also impressed. Josef Heynckes’ team are unbeaten in their last six European away matches and, prior to the first leg, were unbeaten in ten Europa League matches this season.
A 2-0 win for Bayer (14/1) would send them through and certainly shock Juan Carlos Garrido’s team.
Elsewhere, Portugal should be well represented in the last eight as both Benfica and FC Porto are in pole position in their respective ties.
Porto are the runaway Primeira Liga leaders and seem certain to clinch their 25th title as they are currently 13 points clear of second-placed Benfica with only seven games of the campaign remaining.
They secured a superb 1-0 win in Moscow against CSKA last week thanks to Fredy Guarin’s goal but need to be wary as the Russian side, winners of the 2005 UEFA Cup, have already won three times away from home in this season’s competition.
However, such is Porto’s recent form that they could go all the way in the Europa League this season, and they are currently 10/3 to win the competition.
Benfica’s progress is less certain as they travel to the French capital for their second leg holding a narrow 2-1 advantage against Paris St Germain after the first encounter between the two teams at the Stadium of Light.
However, they could hold the psychological advantage as they had to come from behind in Lisbon after Peguy Luyindula had given PSG the lead. Goals by Maxi Pereira and Franco Jara turned the tie around and Benfica have the attacking prowess to score in Paris and clinch their place in the quarter-finals.
As well as CSKA, Zenit St Petersburg also lost their first leg but the 2008 winners of the competition have a massive task ahead of them as they crashed 3-0 to FC Twente last week.
Last season’s Dutch champions have already knocked out another Russian side in Rubin Kazan after moving into the Europa League from the Champions League and have the expertise to finish the job off in Thursday’s second leg.
With Zenit forced on to the attack, Twente seem certain to have the capabilites to score at least one goal on the counter-attack (7/1 for Zenit to win 2-1).
Spartak Moscow are the best-placed of the Russian sides to progress as they pulled off a fine 1-0 first-leg victory against Ajax in the Amsterdam ArenA.
Valeri Karpin’s team will be only too aware though that in the last round they struggled to draw 1-1 with Basle in Moscow after earning a fine 3-2 first-leg win in Switzerland (Spartak Moscow 13/8, Draw 23/10, Ajax 13/8).
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