Tottenham news: When we try to find the best europa league predictions, we have to take under consideration that Mauricio Pochettino has nearly 22 players ready to           join the eleven when needed. Although the continuous rotation of the players has not helped them to find their rhythm. At London’s derby against Arsenal, they played very carefully.       They gave the ball to the opponent and tried to score with counterattacks. They took the lead after an opponent’s mistake in midfield (56′), but conceded a goal in 74′.

In the premiere of the Europa League, they remained scoreless against Partizan. This result was against the expected UEFA Europa League predictions, in a match that they had a shoot at the post. Generally they were not convincing. Pochettino made several changes at the match in Serbia. All those who played are considered for the start lineup. The same is expected to be done today.

Midfielder Chadli left the field due to an injury but he was put at the disposal of his coach. Rose (main left back) and Capoue (main defensive midfielder) are injured too and they will be checked. Walker remains out again.

This is a critical game for Tottenham because it can lead them to next round. 

These are the most difficult europa league predictions.

      Europa League Predictions : Tottenham – Besiktas   1

Besiktas news: They were left behind early in the group with the draw 1-1 against Asteras Tripolis on “Olimpiyat Ataturk”. This match took place in rain. They lost the               volatile victory by conceding a goal in 88′. Until then, they were better than their opponents. In the last 15 minutes they underestimated the Arcadians, believing that the match             was over. Finally, they paid that.

In domestic SuperLig, Slaven Bilic’s team remains unbeaten after four games. The defense, which is critical for Europa League games today, made too many mistakes. In 28′ a goal was wrongly canceled as offside against them, a goal which they finally conceded in 72′. 

“We didn’t deserved to win, we played a mediocre match. These things happen” the Croatian coach admitted. 

Stopper Gulum recovered who stayed on the bench on Saturday. The only absent is the injured winger Pektemek. We should be aware of Besiktas’s absenses when trying to find the most accurate Europa League predictions.

        More Europa League

Arsenal vs Galatasaray

Arsenal news:

In a critical period for Arsenal football club, Arsene Wenger is called to find solutions instantly. At the time when one key player gets injured after the other, Arsenal has been left six points back from the top in Premier League. They have started with defeat in the Champions League. On Saturday, in London’s derby against Tottenham Hotspur, they showed problems in creating chances. They were left back in the score due to mistakes in defense. During the last half hour they were running to fix all the problems. They equalized by Chamberlain (74′) and they have another big derby in front of them, the one against Chelsea (away).

They were unready in the premiere of Champions League. They easily lost 2-0 to Borussia Dortmund (which is fair enough) and as Wenger said, today’s match is very crucial. The French coach, tonight completes 18 years on Arsenal’s bench (took over in 1st October 1996). What interests him today is simply to win: “The only thing I’m thinking right now is the game against the turkish team. Clearly it is a great honor to be 18 years on the bench of this club, but there is no time for flashbacks. Maybe this will be done some time in the future. Now all i care about is to defeat Galatasaray.

“As for the many injuries that arose, he called it “inexplicable phenomenon”. He stated that he has confidence in his team: “The most important in Champions League is to do three home wins. You also have to try and get some points away. So today’s match is very important. I have confidence in my team and I believe that we will succeed.”

They face new injures from the match against Tottenham. Most important of them are these of midfielders Ramsey and Arteta, who will be absent for Arsenal. Basic player, Wilshere, is also injured but he’ll possibly be prevented from the game. Diaby’s participation, who comes from a serious injury and recovers slowly, will not be risked. Other known problems are long time absences of: Debuchy (right back), Giroud (striker), Monreal (left back), Walcott (winger), Gnabry (winger) and Sanogo (striker).

In the plans of the starting lineup, a lot will depend on the presence of Wilshere. If he succeeds to play, he is expected to take a position in midfield along with Flamini. If not, Wenger will give the role of the second defensive midfielder to Cazorla. Otherwise, he will bring Chambers in Arsenal’s midfield. In this case Bellerin will play right back, as in the match against Dortmund.

Galatasaray news:

They got an extreme point playing at home against Anderlecht in the premiere of Champions League (1-1), equalizing in 91′ by Burak Yilmaz. They were minimally threatening, chasing the score from the 52′. They succeeded because of the home funs and the pressure they put, sometimes even unorthodox.

For the SuperLig, they came back to victories, after two games in the league. They took a difficult victory against Sivasspor on Friday at “Turk Telekom Arena”. Despite the quick goals by Chedjou and Burak Yılmaz, they got nervous after deduction of score. They lost possession and were threatened to be equalized in the end. Once again Cesare Prandelli shuffled the deck. The Italian changed the scheme and the players constantly. In the last match he planned a 4-3-2-1 with three midfielders and Adin often coming as a second striker. During the game he changed to 3-5-2, a scheme that Roberto Mancini insisted last year (and was fired by the end of the season!).

In six official games till now, Prandelli has never retained the same team. “We face a quality and experienced team. We will try to play our game and withstand the pressure. Arsenal has many injuries, but we will not change our philosophy. There is no reason. Concentration and patience is needed” said Prandelli. He is the only one of the 32 coaches in Champions League groups who does not know English (he only speaks Italian).

Didier Drogba visited the team’s hotel, as a player of Galatasaray until last year, sat for some time, chatting mostly with Sneijder and Burak Yilmaz.

Galatasaray is complete and will play with a 3-5-2 scheme in London tonight. Sneijder can play ahead of the four of the midfield, in a free role. The Brazilian midfielder, Felipe Melo, will be in a role as a libero which is another tactic used by Mancini last year but did not work. Galatasaray‘s left back Telles becomes midfielder. Speedy winger, Adin, fights for the position as a partner of Burak Yilmaz, in front of the Skopjan newcomer Pandev.

History :  Arsenal vs Galatasaray : The two teams have never met before.

Bayer Leverkusen news:

Even today if you ask any Leverkusen’s player how they lost to Monaco at the premiere, he will not be able to explain it. What can he say about that? That they lost … the sure goals and also Monaco scored in the one and only chance created?

This is certainly the true and the phenomenon of the difficulty in scoring has spread to the “aspirin.” Playing with ten players for most of the game against Freiburg, they created plenty of classic chances, but were left in a goalless draw (had two attempts at the post), unable to continue after the victory over Augsburg in the intercalary matchday in Bundesliga. The impressive start of the season had not continuity for Roger’s Schmidt players, since they have just one win in their four most recent games in the Bundesliga and in the last five officially. However, if we say that they do not play nice football it will be a lie. Just they lack effectiveness.

“The fact that last year Benfica reached the final of the Europa League is not by chance. Benfica have several players from South America who know well how to win the ball and deal with such games. We must begin to win and this has to be done instantly. The group has just six games and we have already lost one. Now we need to get the victory. Key in the match will be the way in which we will defend in the counterattacks of our opponents” these were the words of Roger Schmidt at the press conference.

Key midfielders Rolfes (captain) and Castro remain unavailable for the match. Thus the solutions in midfield are limited. Along with the above, K.Papadopoulos (Stopper) and Brandt (useful attacking midfielder) will be out. Boenisch is facing minor injury problem (basic left back), Schmidt will wait for him until the beginning of the match.

Benfica news:

The start of the “Eagles” in the competition was very poor as after a moderate appearance, they lost at home against Zenit (2-0). Just in the 5′ Hulk who was found himself towards Artur, lost no time and opened the scoring for the Russian team while in the 18′ Benfica were left with ten players when Artur overthrew Danny. The Russians two minutes later won a corner from which Witsel who was found in an advantageous position easily scored the second goal (2-0). In the rest of the match, the “mountain” that Benfica had to climb was beyond their capabilities.

Despite all these, in the league they continued winning as last Saturday won Estoril 3-2. They started with two goals by Talisca in 3′ and in 8′, and then they relaxed until the 53′ when the score turn to a draw 2-2. The victory was given by Lima in the 70′.

Digging in the statements in terms of Benfica, the most interesting one is probably the Brazilian’s midfielder Derley, who said that although the aim is to win, draw will also be important. Jesus beyond the many that he said, he did his estimates for the group saying “for us it will be a success to qualify from the group. In football anything can happen, so we can dream without anyone to have the right to steal our dreams. The fact is that there are 4-5 strong teams that usually reach the semifinals and the final. There is also an outsider, such as Atletico Madrid last year. This is what we have in mind.”

About the game said: “a second defeat will make the situation quite complicated for us. We played against Leverkusen a few years ago and since then, they still have 6-7 players, but they have a different coach who brought new ideas, as a result they play good games in Bundesliga. It will be a tough match and we should do our best to get the win. We have the quality to do it.”

The only change from the previous match again Estoril has to do at the position of the goalkeeper, where Artur is suspended for the current match. His place was taken by Julio Cesar who was also injured in the right leg, but Jesus took three goalkeepers for this match since the international goalkeeper is not 100% ready. From there onwards, the seriously injured Amorim (midfielder, 2/0), Jara (striker, 2 app.), Fejsa (midfielder, without app.), Silvio (defender, without app.) and Sulejmani (striker, without app.) remain unavailable. Nelson Oliveira, Miguel Santos, Loris Benito, Pizzi and Bebe were left out for the match against Leverkusen because they had no appearances in the championship.

History :  Bayer Leverkusen vs Benfica : The two teams have met twice before.

Europa League 21/02/2013:  Benfica vs Bayer Leverkusen      2-1

Europa League 14/02/2013:  Bayer Leverkusen vs Benfica      0-1

Apoel vs Ajax

Apoel news:

They were bad in finishing their chances and lost their first points in the Cyprus league after four successive wins. They drew to Limassol (0-0) at home on Saturday, in a match in which they had good presence and several chances for goal but failed to capitalize.

George Donis claimed to be satisfied with the effort of the players, without having available De Vincenti (midfielder) and Djebbour (Striker) in this match, while the absence of the first one was more obvious.

In the premiere of the groups for the Champions League they lost to Barcelona (0-1) at Barcelona, in a match in which they had excellent defensive tactic while they could score a goal in one of their counterattacks. Against Ajax, they are expected to be guided by their defensive tactic as they did in the match of the premiere where they’ll fight for their first points in the group.

Apoel’s coach emphasized inter alia for the current match: “It’s the first match in our home and if we want to have chances against the other three teams we have to collect points in our home. The opponent are the favorite, they are a team of attacking philosophy. We need to limit them but also to keep the ball. The game will be more demanding than the one in Spain because we are not willing to give the ball to the opponent. Players have great motivation. Realistically, we cannot have the same possession as against Barcelona, but Ajax is not Barcelona. We want to have possession, but possession is not always decisive. We are prepared for all eventualities.”

Apoel’s coach, compared to the last time match, will have De Vincenti and Djebbour available. Papazoglou (centre back) remains unavailable for Apoel due to injury. Last but not least problem that emerged is Nektarios Alexandrou (midfielder), who will miss the match due to injury too. John Arne Riise (left Back) is also off for the current game because he is unprepared.

Ajax news:

Having a high percentage of accuracy in the chances created they passed with the emphatic 5-2 from Brenda’s home and combined with Eindhoven’s defeat, they grabbed the top. In the premiere of the groups in the Champions League, they drew 1-1 at Amsterdam against PSG. They showed more respect than they should to the French in the first half and fairly was found back in the score (0-1 in 14′). They tried harder in the second part and reached the equalizer fairly (74′), while just a few minutes later they had a shoot at the post and failed to do the rollover.

“It will be a difficult game. APOEL is a strong team that plays good football. They also have experience as the average age of players is 28 years. We saw (Apoel) how good team they are, in the match against Barcelona. We also know that the fans are fanatics. My players, however, despite the fact that they are youngsters, they have experience of big games and will not be affected by the atmosphere. We want to end the negative streak in away matches, but in order to have hope that we will succeed we should not underestimate APOEL” said Coach De Boer.

“Normally a point in an away game is not a bad result, but if we want to have high hopes for qualifying to the next stage and given that we have to go to Paris and Barcelona we are obliged to get the three points against Apoel” said in his turn the until recently injured midfielder Sana, who was fully healed and probably will start as a key player in tonight’s match.

The lack of the long absent Fischer (winger) will not affect the team. The only question mark for the first eleven is the position of number “6” for which Viergever and Zimling are disputing.

Apoel vs Ajax: Two teams have not met before.

Coventry vs Preston Analysis

Coventry news:

They started the away match against Rochdale dynamically. In 29′ they were left behind in the score from a penalty made by the goalkeeper. Even before they recovered, they saw the hosts reaching closely to 2-0 (also having a post). Finally, in the finale they pressed, had some lost chances for an equalizer.

This was the second consecutive defeat, since there had been a 2-1 at Scunthorpe’s home, playing with a player less from the early minutes.

They remain unbeaten at home, while in the two matches they played at “Ricoh Arena”, they achieved 2 wins.

Preston news:

They had control in the home game against Crawley Town and – although they did not impressed – they managed to get the victory 2-0.

In 23′ scored first with Wright, while in 65′ Garner formed the final result from the penalty spot.

They came back to the successes after three failed attempts, where basically they had only one poor appearance.

It should be noted that they have scored in all of their three outings so far.

Coventry vs Preston is a match for League One.

Walsall news:

Before the match Walsall vs Doncaster, Walsall left the away crash to Rochdale behind. They had a severe defensive look they took a 0-0 draw in the away match against Gillingham. It was a balanced game, with a few good moments for both teams. However, we should not overlook that they have not score in five of their nine games, while they have surpassed the single in only of them.

They return home where they have just two wins in last 15 games since last year.

Walsall vs Doncaster preview

Doncaster news:

Doncaster fought a lot at the away match against Fulham for the 3rd round of the League Cup, but finally they relented 2-1. Until the 32 minute they were back at the score 2-0, reduced in 60′ and lost penalty shootout in 78′ for the equalizer.

Paul Dickov said that he is satisfied by the effort of his players. In the championship they are derived from the home 3-2 win against Chesterfield. While it is worth to mention that they already have two wins in their last three away matches.

Walsall vs Doncaster analysis

The midfielder finished a good move with a shot from inside the box to open the scoring in first-half injury time.

He then started the move that led to the Saddlers’ second, fired in by Tom Bradshaw from Romaine Sawyers’ pass.

Former Wolves winger Anthony Forde scored the third on 64 minutes with a free-kick that went in off the post.

Atalanta news:

They were fairly defeated 2-0 to Inter Milan. In 30′ Sportiello confirmed his exceptional form by fending off Palacio’s penalty. Ten minutes later he could do nothing in unbelievable kick from Osvaldo. The “bergamaschi” pressed in the second half, lost chances to equalize, but in 87′ Hernanes finalized the score.

“If we had equalized with the chances we lost, everything would be different,” said Stefano Colantuono. “Juventus and Roma are the two best teams in the category and it is difficult to deal with them. The only way to have chances is to play offensively. We start from the last good appearances, although the results were not corresponding” claimed the coach of Atalanta.

Juventus news:

They needed the help of referee Giacomelli who gave a nonexistent penalty in 18′ and Juventus scored. Vidal in 64′ doubled his personal goals and his team, while the final 3-0 was formed by Lichtsteiner in 85′.

They achieved the “5 out of 5” holding the zero in the defense for 7th consecutive match in Serie A.

Buffon said that it will be difficult for the team to repeat last year’s success.

On Wednesday, they travel to Madrid for the difficult match against Atletico.

“We must be serious, because in Bergamo no one wins easily. Firstly we need to get the three points today and then think about the games against Atletico Madrid and Roma. However, I do not believe that the match against Roma will be decisive. I want to get the victories and points. The spectacle is not by concern” Massimiliano Allegri said.

Roma news:

They made the easy things difficult at ‘Ennio Tardini”. Preceded in the 27′ with the goal from Ljajic after a fantastic assist from Totti. They got drawn in 55′ by De Ceglie and while they had lost a lot of chances to make the score 0-2, eventually Pjanic gave the solution with a tremendous kick in 88’. Roma conceded their first goal of the season, but the fact is that they achieved the “5 out of 5” proving that their quality roster has the solutions to the injury problems.

Next Tuesday they face Manchester City in England in the second game day of the Champions League groups.

Today is a great day for Francesco Totti, who reaches the 38 years and naturally he’ll be deified by the tifosi of “giallorossi”, although Garcia probably may not use him at all, due to the upcoming match against Man.City.

“I do not think that my players will think over the game against Manchester City. They did not that even before the match against CSKA Moscow. Currently we only think about Verona. The other teams do not concern us. I do not believe that this year’s championship will be determined at 100 points, because there are many teams to fight for the title. Totti is a power of nature. There is no need to tell him his real age. He thinks he’s still 28 years old and we believe the same too. The fact that he reached up here is due to his tremendous professionalism” Rudi Garcia said.

Verona news:

Verona did not gave up despite losing 2-0 at “Bentegodi” to Genoa in 48′. They reduced the score with a goal by Panagiotis Tachtsidis in 52′ and equalized by Ionita in 64′. The Moldavian scored for the second successive game day.

“My team never gives up,” said Andrea Mandorlini proudly.

“I hope Totti will celebrate his 38 years after the game and not during it. Roma are a very good team and have greatly reduce the difference from Juventus. However, the latter is accustomed to win” said Verona’s coach.

Palmeiras news:

Veteran Lucio and former football player Victorino won easily the youngsters of Goias, with an unbelievable 6 goal score written on the stadium’s board. Dorival Junior had the bright idea to make three changes in 46′(4-0). They had an injury and a sent off in the second half, which resulted in a completely black scenario for “verdao.”

Palmeiras blamed Ricardo Gareca for all the mistakes, and now “verdao” is a laggard for sure, who pay for the very poor planning that the management had made since the beginning of the season.

Vitoria news:

They were taken aback by Bahia in 6′, but they equalized the score quickly, with a set-play (9′). In the 80 minutes that followed they were the best team, reaching a fair victory at “Classico” of El Salvador, in which they also had two shoots at the post. The winning goal was scored in 53 ‘.

Second consecutive win and third out of the last four games for Ney Franco’s team, which nevertheless remains in last place.