Benfica (9/4 Group, 100/1 Tournament)
Last Season: Beaten Europa League finalists, 2nd
in Portuguese Superliga
Previous Best: 2x Winners (1961,1962)
Manager: Jorge Jesus
There have been some painful football seasons in recent
history but Benfica’s last year almost defies belief. Second by one point in the Portuguese
Championship, they dominated and led for long periods of the Europa League
final before being turned over by Chelsea and then conceded twice in the last
10 minutes of the cup for a treble set of losses at the final hurdle.
It was truly undeserving for Jorge Jesus’s side, who generally
played brilliant football all round but crucially lacked the finishing to go
with that play, which contributed towards their early elimination at the hands
of Celtic – even though it was a defeat against Spartak Moscow that ended up
dropping them down to the Europa League.
There are positives however. Jorge Jesus has stayed and
signed a new two year contract, while there hasn’t been the huge potential
exodus that’s commonly seen with Portuguese clubs over the summer – so the
likes of Oscar Cardozo, Rodrigo, Matic, Gaitan, and Garay are all still present
– and the final being held on their home ground should be a special motivation
for a side that does have the quality to go a long way, although the worry is
that a lack of sharpness upfront could cost them once again even if this group
doesn’t present an obvious danger for them.
PSG (4/9 Group, 16/1 Tournament)
Last Season: Lost to Barcelona in quarter finals (3-3
aggregate)
Previous best: Semi finalists (1995)
PSG’s rich pedigree hasn’t always quite matched up to their
achievements in recent years but they’ve been reaping the rewards of recent
heavy investment and the French Champions look set to make a bold bid for
European glory this time around following a strong showing last year.
After another £100m spending splurge, PSG can now boast two
world-class attackers in Cavani and Ibrahimovic to take on the defences with
and have the benefit of not being pushed too hard on the domestic scene even
with Monaco having had the benefits of not being involved on two fronts.
Boasting a midfield that has two of Europe’s best providers
in Lucas Moura and Marco Veratti gives new manager Laurent Blanc – who has
experience in this competition with Bordeaux from two years ago, reaching the quater finals – a wealth of creativity and options. Their back four held solid
at nearly all occasions last term and with Thiago Silva having a promising new
partner in Marquinihios alongside him, should be at least as good this year.
Anderlecht (66/1 Group, 500/1 Tournament)
Last Season: Last in-group stages
Previous Best: Semi finalists x2 (1982, 1986)
Belgium’s re-emergence on the international scene hasn’t
been matched by their clubs, with most of the players that have driven them
towards 5th favouritism for next year’s World Cup but coach John van
den Brom feels that there is plenty of cause for optimism in an extremely tough
group, with the man who took both ADO Den Haag and Vitesse into the Europa
League telling UEFA’s official media website that he would have ‘signed up for
this’ beforehand.
However losing their top goalscorer from last year is a
tremendous blow and they should have no say in the outcome here, especially
with stronger domestic opposition for the title at home and midfielders Lucas
Biglia having gone.
Olympiakos (66/1 Group, 500/1 tournament)
Last Season: Europa League last 32
Previous Best: 1x Quarter finalist (1999)
Now the dominant force in Greece, with three successive
titles to their name, Olympiakos are a perfect example of the decline that
Greek football has taken in the past three years. Having commendably made the
last few stages of the Europa League for the last three years, the Greeks have
lost Rafik Dejbbour to greener pastures and while they have no competition,
cannot reasonably be expected to challenge seriously for the last 16.
VERDICT: PSG should beat Benfica to top spot but are a
better outright proposition than a straight lump and they should have no
troubles beating the rest of a weak section.
No comments:
Post a Comment