The Europa League and Conference League have reached the quarter-final stage with eight sumptuous first-leg ties to look forward to on Thursday night.
The Premier League is double-handed in the Europa League with Liverpool at home to Atalanta and West Ham off to Germany to take on runaway Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen.
There is also a mouthwatering all-Italian clash from the San Siro where AC Milan take on rejuvenated Roma.
In the Conference League expect sparks to fly when Olympiacos and Turkish powers Fenerbahce meet in Piraeus.
Olympiacos are one of two Greek clubs still in the competition - PAOK are at Club Brugge - while England’s lone representative, Aston Villa, will face a serious examination from in-form French side Lille.
- Liverpool to win & Both Teams To Score
- Bayer Leverkusen vs West Ham - Half-time draw
- AC Milan vs Roma - Romelu Lukaku anytime goalscorer
- Draw or Lille Double Chance vs Aston Villa
Liverpool vs Atalanta
Liverpool have had five days to get Sunday’s disappointment at Manchester United out of their system, a frustrating 2-2 draw which showed both sides of Jurgen Klopp’s Premier League powers.
The title-chasing Reds carved out chance after chance, took a couple, should have scored many more against an outclassed United, and then shipped a couple of goals as well.
Klopp will make changes for this Europa League assignment but the upshot is that Liverpool will still be entertaining, still be vulnerable and the likelihood is they beat Atalanta in what could well be a high-scorer.
Liverpool haven’t failed to score in a home game since December but both teams have scored in each of their last seven matches.
That will encourage Atalanta boss Gian Piero Gasperini, whose own team are also involved in their share of high-scoring encounters.
He boasts a trio of players in Gianluca Scamacca, top scorer Teun Koopmeiners and ex-Everton starlet Ademola Lookman who are all scoring goals and who will test a Liverpool defence who have not kept a clean sheet since the start of March.
LIVERPOOL TO WIN AND BOTH TEAMS TO SCORE
Leverkusen vs West Ham
Bundesliga leaders Bayer Leverkusen look little short of unstoppable at the moment and this week are set to celebrate their first ever league title - with five games left to play.
Xabi Alonso’s men haven’t lost a single game in any competition in 2023-24 and have taken full advantage of Bayern Munich’s lapses to get one hand on the league trophy.
And in Europe their progress had been seamless with six group wins out of six before they were made to work hard by Qarabag in the round-of-16 with Alonso tweaking his personnel.
Expect the Spaniard to go full-strength against West Ham, a team he will respect given they are the current Conference League champions, are seventh in the Premier League and have beaten another German side, Freiburg, three times in Europe already this season.
Against West Ham is the fact that boss David Moyes must pick a team minus his star midfielder - Edson Alvarez - and his star forward - 19-goal Jarrod Bowen.
The Hammers are generally set up to play on the counter and stay compact, those selection headaches simply emphasising Moyes’ desire to keep things tight and try to get out of town without any damage being done.
West Ham are competitive enough to stay in this game, though, and look set to still at least be level at half-time.
Roma vs AC Milan
Serie A heavyweights AC Milan and Roma will slug it out in the San Siro where the visitors boast a striker in stunning form in the Europa League.
Belgian forward Romelu Lukaku joined Roma in the summer after helping Inter Milan to the Champions League final.
And he’s taken to the Europa League like a duck to water having scored seven goals in seven different ties for the Roman giants.
Lukaku, alongside Paulo Dybala, is a major threat to any defence and that includes Milan’s, one of the best in Italy’s top flight but not always well behaved in Europe.
Stefano Pioli’s side conceded eight times in their Champions League group and then shipped three against Rennes in the Europa League play-off round and three against Slavia Prague in the last 16.
If they are sloppy at the back again in this eagerly-awaited quarter-final first leg tie, Lukaku can take advantage.
ROMELU LUKAKU TO SCORE ANYTIME
Aston Villa vs Lille
As a four-time Europa League winning coach with two different clubs, Unai Emery knows what it takes to land the big trophies.
Now in the Europa Conference League with Aston Villa, he’ll have his eyes on yet another prize and as the tournament favourites many expect the Spaniard to deliver.
First, though, he has to mastermind a way past an impressive Lille, who are unbeaten in seven games in the lead-up to their trip to the West Midlands, a run that has included important recent wins at home against Lens and Marseille.
Paulo Fonseca’s French side have been solid on the road in the competition so far with wins at Olimpija Ljubljana and Sturm Graz and while Villa away is a step up in class from those assignments, the Ligue 1 outfit can still cause the Premier League side problems.
Villa initially impressed when storming to a 2-0 lead at home to Brentford on Saturday but then they switched off to allow the Bees to respond with three goals in nine minutes in a match which eventually ended 3-3.
Emery’s men are not bullet-proof and also have a colossal game on Sunday at Arsenal, giving the Spanish coach a headache over team selection.
