Really exciting day and there are six suggestions including three 1.75 unit ( max standard stake) selections in today's newsletter at odds of 2.50, 2.16 and 1.97, last of those is a little shorter than we usually like at clubgowi , but looks significantly overpriced, so we have no real option but to bet. You can read one of the "other" previews below ........

 

 

Europa League:

Before the last round of Europa League games, I touched the general nature of the competition.............We have spoken many times about how teams from the Iberian Peninsula and Eastern Europe have dominated the competition and always give it full respect, which has certainly not been the case with clubs from Germany and France for example and to some degree England and Italy ( Italian teams had really struggled until recently and from the formation of the Europa League until 2013, only one had made it past the round of 32 and they lost in the last 16). It is hard to know exactly how much the prize of a Champions League place for next season will influence this approach in the coming years, I suspect the teams who will get the biggest motivation from that will be those who are unlikely to qualify through their domestic league, but that by definition means they are not amongst their domestic elite currently, so it will have to be one of the stronger leagues, for example Spain and so, we are back to where we started !

 

FC Basel- Sevilla

 

Sevilla are looking to win the competition for a fifth time and the third year in a row and meet all the criteria for going deep once again. However, it is all about value and the hosts look over priced in my opinion, Sevilla are always capable of turning around any tie at home and are still not without a chance of finishing fourth in La Liga and clinching a Champions League spot via that route, they currently trail Villarreal by eight points, which is plenty, but host them at the weekend and I feel they will want to keep all CL options open as long as possible and cannot yet, give their 100% undivided attention to the tie with Basel.
 

The hosts put out St Etienne in the last round, ahead of the away first leg I wrote ...........The visitors are one of the most experienced european teams left in the competition and as a club, they feel they have their strongest squad for a decade, they have won their two games after the Swiss restart by a combined 7-0, the 4-0 away win over second placed Grasshoppers, who felt similarly about their own strength this season, was incredibly impressive. It opened up a 15 point lead at the top of the table and all but sealed a seventh straight domestic title. That will ensure that all their focus from now on in is on the Europa League and this "golden generation" which seems sure to be broken up in the summer, with several players catching the eye of some of the biggest clubs in Europe, genuinely see themselves as potential winners.
 

I updated those notes prior to the return............St Etienne led 2-0 there inside 40 minutes, but when Basel levelled the match it looked to be running away from the French side, but all credit to them they battle back to take a one goal advantage into this evening. The Swiss side had enough chances to have taken at least a draw, but will have been very disappointed with their defending for the free goals and aerially, Saints gave then a lot of problems from dead ball situations and Basel will surely have been working on that in build up. They got back on track with a facile 5-1 league win at the weekend , whilst ASSE remain in fourth place in Ligue 1 with a 1-1 draw at Marseille, where they conceded an equaliser deep in injury time to ten men and you just wonder if they feel that would have turned out differently if they had not had such a tough game last Thursday, or had rotated more. I definitely feel we will see 4-5 changes tonight, the squad which has travelled is big enough to allow for that and this time they do not have massive home support to please.
 

They made hard work of their 2-1 win, but edged through, they will not want to travel to Spain without a lead and given the visitors very poor road form (0-9-5 in La Liga and 0-0-4 in Europe !), we can take the Swiss champions to find a way to win this.