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betting » Previews » Europa League Quarterfinals 2011

Europa League Quarterfinals 2011

By Joe, BettingExpert.com | Edited

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Hulk

The Porto boys are one of the favourites to win the Europa League and striker "Hulk" is looking to shoot his way to Dublin this coming May but first he will need to get things going against Spartak Moskva. Porto's rivals, Benfica will be hosting the Dutch outfit, PSV Eindhoven while Villarreal and Twente will also fight it out in the first leg on Thursday.

 

Porto vs. Spartak Moskva

First it was Russian team PFC CSKA Moskva who got knocked out of the Europa League by Porot  and now maybe Spartak Mosskva will get the end of the stick from the Portuguese team. The home side secured their 25th Portuguese domestic league last weekend when they beat Benfica 2-1 away leaving them just the Europa League to conquer. Porto have only lost one of their last seven European home games and Helton, Moutinho, Hulk and Falcao are likely to feature on Thursday against Spartak Moskva. The treble is still on when the season coming to an end.

 

Spartak Moskva did not enjoy the same triumph that their host have endured. The Russian lost their game to Kuban Krasnodar with 3-1 and slumping to a 14th place in the Premier League, Russian of course. Having said that, the Russian Premier League season has only been gone for three games old and so it won’t be long until Spartak Moskva finds their way, but bear in mind all Spartak Moskva’s away games have ended in defeats, two for two on that. There is one player that can give an insight to their opposition, Brazilian Ibson spent four years with Porto before ending up in Moscow. He will be relinquishing the challenge to beat his former team.

 

This is the first time that these two teams are facing each other. Porto are well in form and they could be hard to beat which Spartak Moskva will find hard to penetrate them.

 

A Porto win will get you odds at 1.40 with Betsson.

 

 

Benfica vs. PSV Eindhoven

The second and last Portuguese side left in Europe and they face Dutch outfit, PSV Eindhoven, at home in the first leg. After conceding the title this weekend at home to their fiercest rival, Porto, they are now in search to find a way to win some silverware this season and Europa League looks likely their salvation. Sitting firmly second in the domestic league, Benfica will have to find their better side with Javier Saviola, Oscar Cardozo, Nicolas Gaitan, Pablo Aimar and Nuno Gomes to help them get there. This is clearly another tournament that could erase their loss in the domestic title in 2011.

 

The Dutch side will have to pick themselves after their 2-0 away defeat to Twente for a top spot in the Eredivisie in Holland. The defeat could well affect their performance on Thursday as they travel to Portugal in a vulnerable state. However things are not that bleak, they are still 2 points away from Twente, PSV Eindhoven can turn things around and a draw or win against Benfica could get their form on track once again. Both Balazs Dzsudzsak and Ola Toivonen will be key to their performance in the first leg.

 

This is the only tie in the quarterfinals where the two teams have met before. Both teams have contested five times and it is even stevens between the two with one win each and three draws, their last meeting was back in 1998. Funny enough, both teams are also second in their respective league but Benfica can’t win the title, so they will be hungry.    

 

A draw between Benfica and PSV will get you odds at 3.45 with Betsson.

 

 

Villarreal vs. Twente

Everything was going smoothly until Barcelona came and wreck the good form that Villarreal was enjoying. Their 1-0 home defeat to the reigning champions of Spain couldn’t be a worse run up to their 1st leg of the quarterfinals in the Europa League. If that is not bad enough, then the absent of Nilmar is also another worry that Villarreal will have to deal with.  Giuseppe Rossi and Marco Ruben will be the players to pushing things forward in hope for a place in the next round to get some silverware as the La Liga is off limits.

 

While sending PSV Eindhoven to Portugal with a defeat, Twente returned to the top of the Dutch league and definitely finding their momentum before travelling to Spain. It is definitely some exciting times for the visitor as they have never been so far in a European competition and that could intimidate them as Villarreal does have some fanatic fans. The success story both in the domestic and European have been the emerging players of Marc Janko, Theo Jannsen and Luuk De Jong, the trio can cause trouble in front of goals as they share 34 goals amongst them, domestically.

 

Once again, first time that these two teams meet and it will be Twente trying to hit the counter attack while Villarreal certainly hoping to dominate the scenes. The yellow submarines are tough at home with six games unbeaten and all six coming from home.

 

A Villarreal win here will get you odds at 1.65 with Betsson.



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betting » Previews » Europa League Quarterfinals 2011