Europa League Previews: September 30, 2010

Borussia Dortmund vs Sevilla

These two sides have had dramatically different starts to the season and if you’re going on form alone then the home side should have absolutely nothing to worry about in this match up. After losing the opening game, Dortmund have strung together five successive wins. There is one thing that you should be able to bank on if you’re watching this match: there should be plenty of goals as Borussia have been involved in some pretty impressive score lines since the start of the season.

It’s not just in the domestic league where Dortmund have been on fire, they won their last Europa League match in some style, winning 4-3. Kagawa is the man to watch, the previously unknown midfielder has proven to be something of a steal at less than £300,000 and Sevilla will have to work hard to stop his advances.

Sevilla are on paper the better side, but that hasn’t been translating to victories, it hasn’t even been translating into draws. Even a win here wouldn’t be enough to bump start Sevilla’s season as being in the Europa League is a disappointment in itself. Still something needs to happen and it needs to happen fast otherwise Sevilla are going to find themselves in a world of trouble domestically and dropping out of Europe as well.

Utrecht vs Liverpool

Utrecht have a real chance at winning this match, that might not be something that anybody who hadn’t been following the Premiership this season might’ve expected to hear, but Liverpool simply aren’t the side they’re supposed to be.

There are a lot of problems and a lot of chances to exploit them which has been proven repeatedly this season. This is the first time that these two teams have met in a competitive match. Liverpool have dropped Gerrard from the squad, the thing about this is it could be taken in a few different ways: Gerrard is under performing, but the most obvious reason is that Utrecht are not being taken seriously and Liverpool think that they can win without their captain seeing as Torres has been named in the squad, despite having only managing one goal so far this season.

Liverpool need to seriously up their game as they are another team on the list of underachievers which seem incredibly common throughout Europe at the moment. Although resting Gerrard could cost them this match.

Manchester City vs Juventus

Man City are one of the favourites to win the Europa League this season and judging by the way that they have been playing this season they have a pretty good chance at living up to that. Watching them humble Chelsea last weekend was enough to make any sceptic sit up and take note of this side. The squad is set top be rotated although it seems quite likely that Tevez and Adebayor will be City’s attack. Johnson could be the man to watch and he is one of the favourites to open the scoring, his style of play could be perfectly suited to punching holes in the Juventus defence.

Juve are starting to look a little healthier they didn’t have the best start to the season although their 4-2 win against Cagliari on the weekend may have done a lot to help boost the sides confidence. The problem is that Juventus are a mere shadow of the team they were 10 years ago, they aren’t a bad side and they are amongst the favourites to win the competition however they just don’t have the class on their side any more to make this a particularly easy match for the Italians.

Atletico vs Bayer Leverkusen

The defending champions started their Europa title defence with a loss and they’ll be looking to get their campaign back on track. Last year's win ended a 14 year trophy drought for the Spanish side. That did seem a little bit out of the blue considering the fact that other than that Atletico have had a pretty good start to the season domestically. Their only home loss this season has come against Barcelona; and let’s face it, they are of a much higher calibre than Leverkusen. This is their match to win or lose and if they play the way they have been so far this season then they should certainly win.

Leverkusen are a good side, and they have been playing well, they’ve enjoyed a good start to the Bundesliga and the Europa League, sitting at the top of their group after a hefty win in their opening match. This could prove to be a very important match for the Germans, not only does beating the champs result in a major confidence boost, but sitting 6 points clear of them now could prove to be an absolute god send when it comes to totting up the points later on.

Joe - livescoredaily.com - live scores and live sports