As the Europa League 2021 round of 16 matches are fast approaching - with first legs to be played on Thursday 11 March and the second legs the following Thursday 18 March - three English teams remain in the tournament.
Manchester United will play AC Milan at home in the most high profile match of the draw, with Arsenal taking on Olympiakos and Tottenham Hotspur at home to Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb. The three English clubs are all strong contenders to win the Europa League, with many leading bookmakers making Manchester United the favourite followed by Spurs and then Arsenal.
Deep into the gruelling schedule of Premier League fixtures Manchester United are battling to catch up with rivals Manchester City, who top the Premier League with 65 points and haven’t lost a match since November. Clawing back the 14 points that separate the two clubs remains the absolute priority for manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. But United do have another job to do next week when they play AC Milan and the bookies reckon a win is on the cards, with odds of 8/11 from SkyBet. Fans had been looking forward to seeing former Manchester United player Zlatan Ibrahimovic in action but unfortunately the AC Milan striker suffered a thigh injury playing Roma last weekend and he will not take part in the first leg match next week, and looks doubtful for the second leg also.
Tottenham Hotspur are favourites to win next week’s match against Dinamo Zagreb with odds of 4/9 from SkyBet. After demolishing Wolfsberg 8-1 on aggregate in the round of 32, manager Jose Mourihno’s team will be full of confidence prior to their match against Dinamo Zagreb. Bookie Paddy Power offers odds of 5/1 that Spurs will win Europa League 2021 and, after just managing to gain entry to the tournament on the last day of the 2019/21 Premier League season, to that end the club has invested heavily in new players such as Reguilon, Hojbjerg and of course Gareth Bale who is now regaining the top-flight form that has made him a world-class player over the years.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is frustrated that UEFA has decided to shift the Tottenham match from an away fixture to a home fixture, as he believes this will give Spurs a big advantage in the North London derby match on Sunday 14 March. The Gunners face fourteen hours of flight time in their Athens trip next week. Arteta says “Unfortunately it’s not going to change. We can raise our voices and we should do that because we want to have two teams playing in equal conditions. But the decision has been made and that’s it”. Arsenal beat Benfica 3-2 in Athens to reach the last 16 and return to the city as favourites in the match against Olympiakos, with odds of 10/11 from bookmaker Paddy Power with the Greek side at odds of 14/5 from the same bookie. Arsenal are third favourites to lift the Europa League trophy in Gdansk in May, with odds of 7/1 from Bet365.
UEFA will draw the quarter-finals and semi-final ties on March 19. Quarter-final first and second leg matches will take place on 8 and 15 April, with the semi-final first and second leg matches on 29 April and 6 May. The Final will take place on Wednesday, 26 May, at the Stadium Miejski in Gdansk, Poland.