UEFA Europa League: Predicting the Likely Winners from the Semi-Finals
The 2021-22 UEFA Europa League (UEL) campaign will resume next week on Thursday, 28 April. Four evenly-matched teams will battle it out for a place in the final at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium on 18 May. The UEL semi-finals will see the two British and German clubs each go head-to-head against each other.
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From when the team arrived in Lyon until they departed the Groupama Stadium as #UEL semi-finalists.
A chance to relive our historic quarter-final win from behind the scenes π
RB Leipzig will take on Rangers on 28 April and 5 May across two legs after both teams eliminated Atalanta and Braga respectively in the quarter-finals. West Ham United, meanwhile, will face Eintracht Frankfurt on the same day after both teams dumped Lyon and Barcelona out respectively in the last eight. Just like in the quarter-finals, we can expect to see more upsets in the Europa League semi-finals.
2022 winner will be ______ π
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This year's Europa League has been nothing short of exciting, featuring some of the best teams in Europe who have scored goals galore. In the 134 matches played so far, 356 goals have been scored at an astonishing rate of 2.66 goals per game and a goal has been scored every 34 minutes.
Sevilla are the most successful team in the competition's history, winning a whopping six titles. They established themselves as the Europa League Kings after three successive triumphs between 2014 and 2016.
With the competition in its last knockout stages, we will take a look at who will emerge victors in the ties.
West Ham vs Frankfurt - UEFA Europa League SF 1
Having brushed aside Barcelona in the quarter-finals, Oliver Glasner's men will be brimming with confidence ahead of their first leg clash with West Ham. They held Xavi's men to a 1-1 stalemate at Deutsche Bank Park before claiming a famous 2-3 away victory at Camp Nou in the return leg.
West Ham, on the other hand, have had quite a decent run of form in this UEFA Europa League campaign [W6, D2, L2]. Their only defeat came against Dinamo Zagreb in the group stages and against Sevilla in the first leg of the last-16. Having dispatched a dangerous Sevilla team in the last 16, Frankfurt will know that the Hammers will be a force to be reckoned with.
Bowen caps off a magical night in France for @WestHam βοΈπ€©
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This will be the second time both sides will meet in the semi-finals of a European competition. West Ham got past them in their first encounter with a scoreline of 4-3 on aggregate in the semi-finals of the 1976 European Cup Winners' Cup, only to be defeated by Anderlecht in the final.
Being the previous winners of the 1980 version, Frankfurt have what it takes to navigate their way through. Their playmaker, Filip Kostic, who is leading the assists charts in the competition (5) will be key for them in the game.
Semi-final memories for @Eintracht π¦ β½οΈ
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However, West Ham boast a more plethoric flow of quality in their ranks than Oliver Glasner's men. They can always count on the likes of Jarrod Bowen, Michail Antonio, and Declan Rice for their qualification chances. Their defense has also been sharp, with the Hammers keeping the highest number of clean sheets in the tournament (6).
Hence, David Moyes' men are tipped to progress as a result of their in-depth squad.
RB Leipzig vs Rangers - UEFA Europa League SF 2
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Next Stop, Germany.
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The tie is also expected to be quite nervy as Leipzig's second European semi-final puts them against a Rangers side that have already eliminated another German side (Borussia Dortmund) this year. Domenico Tedesco's men joined the competitors of the second-tier of UEFA's football club competition after finishing third in their Champions League group.
They then defeated Real Sociedad in the knockout round of the playoffs before getting an automatic qualification in the last 16 after they were paired with Russian side Spartak Moscow. They then comfortably cruised past Atalanta in the last eight.
Rangers, on the other hand, secured a knockout stage berth after finishing as runners-up to Lyon in their group. They dispatched Dortmund in the knockout rounds of the playoffs, Red Star Belgrade in the last 16, and Braga in the quarter-finals. However, they needed thirty minutes of additional time before they eventually saw off the Portuguese giants in an action-packed quarter-final decider.
The last meeting between the two sides was in 2017 in a friendly game where Leipzig won 4-0 in dramatic fashion. The Red Bulls' previous meeting with a Scottish side in the UEFA Europa League was in the 2018-19 campaign. They won 2-0 at home and lost 1-2 away from home in the group stages against Celtic.
Leipzig's talisman Christopher Nkunku has been impressive since the start of the campaign and has 10 goals in 10 European games this season. He was their backbone against Atalanta as his brace helped them stretch their unbeaten streak to 13 matches across all competitions.
That being said, Giovanni van Bronckhorst's men have been dogged in the middle of the park, having made a tournament-high 113 tackles and 502 ball recoveries. Goalkeeper Allan McGregor has made the most saves in the tournament (37) and we could witness a mouthwatering clash between defense and attack in the game.
We predict that this game might go into extra-time and possibly to a penalty shootout, with Leipzig edging their Scottish opponents.