Who are the favourites for the 2022/23 Europa League? Man Utd still most fancied despite Sevilla collapse

Ian Watson
Man Utd boss Ten Hag

Manchester United remain favourites despite imploding in the quarter-final first leg against Sevilla. Feyenoord climbed after giving Jose Mourinho work to do…

We are into the last eight. So here are the favourites for the 2023 Europa League according to the best odds available at Oddschecker as of… now.

 

1) Manchester United
United had to come through a play-off to get into the knockout stages after finishing second in their group to Real Sociedad. But the win over Barcelona and the subsequent cruise past Real Betis has only served to highlight their credentials as favourites for a second Europa League title after Jose Mourinho’s triumph in 2017. The first half against Sevilla reinforced their credentials – then they sat back and caved in. Still, they remain favourites ahead of tricky quarter-final second leg in Spain.

 

2) Juventus
A Coppa Italia semi-final aside, the Europa League is all Juve have left this season after a 15-point domestic deduction left them out of the running for a top-four place in Serie A. If they want to be in the Champions League next season, Max Allegri will have to go all in for a quarter-final against Arsenal’s conquerers Sporting having come through a tricky play-off against Nantes and a last-16 clash with Freiburg. They go to Portugal next week with a slender lead.

 

3) Feyenoord
The Dutchmen emerged as winners from a ridiculously tight group, with all four clubs finishing on eight points, each one winning two, losing two and drawing two. Their goal difference was the same as Midtjylland but they finished top having scored one goal more than the Danes. The Eredivisie table-toppers smashed Shakhtar Donetsk 7-1 in the second leg to set up repeat of last season’s Europa Conference League final against Jose’s Roma. They look well-placed for revenge after a 1-0 win in the first leg.

 

4) Roma
Roma are firmly in contention in Serie A for a Champions League spot but Mourinho knows how to win the Europa League and he has form for steering the capital club to European silverware. They survived a scare in the play-off, overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg to beat RB Salzburg 2-1 on aggregate, prompting Mourinho to say: “We were beautiful tonight.” They impressed in the first leg of their last 16 tie too, beating Real Socieded 2-0 before completing the job Jose-style in Spain. They’ll have to do it the hard way, though, if they are to get past Feyenoord in the quarter-finals.

Ex-Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho put his hands together and closes his eyes

5) Bayer Leverkusen
The Germans were languishing around mid-table in Bundesliga and flopped in the Champions League, but they have won their last five domestically – including beating Bayern Munich – to enter a quarter-final against Union Saint-Gilloise in fine fettle. The Belgians beat German opposition in the last 16 and they took a 1-1 draw from their first-leg trip to Leverkusen.

 

6) Sevilla
Sevilla were stinking out La Liga but the Spaniards always save their best work for Europa League. And they saved it for much of the first leg against Manchester United. They were pretty rotten for an hour and should have been staring up at a mountain to climb. Instead, they capitalised on a catastrophic 10 minutes for United and will fancy themselves back in Seville.

7) Sporting Lisbon
The Portuguese club weren’t even in the bookies’ top ten before or during their last-16 clash with Arsenal. But Ruben Amorim inspired a penalty shootout triumph over the previous second-favourites to set up a quarter-final against current second-favourites Juventus. Sporting will be optimistic of overturning a 1-0 deficit from the first leg in Turin.

 

8) Union Saint-Gilloise
“This isn’t a dream,” tweeted the Belgian club after battering Union Berlin to secure a 6-3 aggregate win in their last 16 tie, taking their European adventure at least as far as the quarter-finals. They returned to Germany to take on Bayer Leverkusen and took a draw back to Belgium. But Union SG remain the outsiders among the remaining eight.