A Fierce Struggle In The Europa League And The Conference League

Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen, leaders in the English and German leagues, are heading east, where two easy matches await them on paper against Sparta Prague of the Czech Republic and Karabakh of Azerbaijan on Thursday in the first leg of the European League (Europa League) football final. After winning the League Cup title at the expense of Chelsea in the last breath, Liverpool intends to continue the war on several fronts, including the Europa League, the continental auxiliary competition after the Champions League, which concludes in the Dublin final on May 22. It is true that Sparta Prague is currently leading the Czech League and has performed well on the continent this season, qualifying from a group that included Spain's Real Betis, then overturning its deficit against Galatasaray of Turkey to a big win in the 16-final playoff, but Liverpool seems an extraordinary candidate to overcome it. German coach Jurgen Klopp hopes, in his final season with Liverpool, to achieve a remarkable quadruple. After winning the English League Cup, he is engaged in a fiery battle in the local league with Manchester City, the defending champion, and Arsenal. He reached the quarter-finals in the local cup competition, but he was on his mind during his match at the Letna Stadium in Prague. He may be confused by his expected position on Sunday with Manchester City, which is only one point behind him in the Premier League. While Liverpool lost its last two matches away from home in the continental competition, to Toulouse of France and Saint-Geloise of Belgium, Klopp may once again resort to young names against Sparta, keen to protect the key players in City’s campaign. Liverpool is still missing its star Mohamed Salah, who played an orphan match since his return injured from the African Cup of Nations, but the Egyptian striker appeared in good condition during training, and is awaiting the coach’s decision to include him for some time or to keep him for the expected summit match against City. The quarter-final draw, which will be drawn on March 15, will also determine the path of the teams in the semi-finals, where Liverpool may face Bayer Leverkusen, one of the most prominent surprises in the five major European championships this season. Leverkusen, led by its Spanish coach Xabi Alonso, leads the German League by a wide margin (10 points with 10 stages to go) over Bayern Munich, who has held the title for the last 11 seasons and has not lost in various competitions, in a rare achievement for the club searching for its first title in the Bundesliga. Leverkusen, the holders of the European Cup Winners' Cup (currently Europa League) in 1988, is performing at outstanding levels with former Liverpool midfielder Alonso, who is the only one to win his six matches in the group stage. Alonso heads to Baku for the second time this season to face Karabakh, after beating them 5-1 in Leverkusen and 1-0 away from home in the group stage. Despite suffering from a long six-hour flight and a three-hour time difference, Leverkusen showed its readiness for the match. After qualifying for the knockout rounds in its first continental participation, England's Brighton travels to Italy to face Roma, which is breathing a sigh of relief with its new coach, Daniele De Rossi. At the Olympic Stadium, De Rossi will face his friend, Brighton coach Roberto De Zerbi. Italian Milan is looking to continue its progress in the tournament when it faces Slavia Prague, and its coach Stefano Pioli acknowledged that the competition for the local league title has become out of reach in light of its neighbor Inter being in the lead, 16 points behind the third-placed team in Serie A, so it is... Wanting to win a continental title for the Lombard club. French Marseille clashes with Spanish Villarreal, coached by Marcelino Garcia Toral, who was supervising the former and left after only three months at the beginning of this season. English West Ham, the champion of the third Conference League at the continental level, travels to Germany to face Freiburg, which is happy to force Bayern Munich to a draw in the local league. The meeting will be the third between them this season, after West Ham won twice in the group stage (2-1 and 2-0). Rangers, the leaders of the Scottish League and runner-up in the competition two seasons ago, were not rewarded for topping their group, as they fell against the powerful Portuguese club Benfica, where they are visiting in Lisbon. In the Conference League (Conference League), the Dutch Ajax and its English guest, Aston Villa, stand out in the 16th final. Ajax, which had previously won the Champions League four times, qualified for the round of 16, after defeating Norwegian Bodo Glimt in the knockout round 4-3 on aggregate, with the first leg ending in a 2-2 draw, after Ajax was two goals behind, but succeeded in Winning the second leg 2-1. As for Aston Villa, the European champion once before, they topped Group E, which included the teams of Legia Warsaw of Poland, Alkmaar of the Netherlands and Zrinski Mostar of Bosnia and Herzegovina. In the rest of the matches, Belgian Saint-Geloise will meet its Turkish guest Fenerbahce, and French Lille will meet Austrian Sturm Graz. And Victoria Plzen of the Czech Republic with its host, Servette Geneve, of Switzerland, and Molde of Norway, with Club Brugge of Belgium, and Dinamo Zagreb of Croatia, with PAOK of Greece.