The next 24 matches have been completed in the Europa League, and they mostly went as expected, with only five road clubs coming away with victories. But there were still some surprises, and this will highlight some of those results.
These are some of the results from the second day of matches from around Europe (based on UEFA rankings heading into the match or location) that piqued our interest. We’ll also be referencing clubs’ chances to win their group or advance, and I am using the great UEFA Europa League Predictions over at FiveThirtyEight for that (so I don’t have to keep linking it in multiple spots). Home teams are listed first:
Malmo FF 2-0 Besiktas
Sarpsborg 08 3-1 Genk
I wanted to highlight both matches from Group I because they made the group the only one with all four clubs tied with three points after two matches. It also continued the trend of the home teams winning, with all four matches played thus far in the group having won by the hosting club. Nominally, Sarpsborg is leading the group because they’ve scored the most goals (yet have the lowest odds of reaching the next round per FiveThirtyEight), and Malmo is in last place because they’ve scored the fewest, but Matchday 3 should hopefully allow for some separation. Note: Sarpsborg and Besiktas are the home clubs in three weeks, soplace your bets if you think the home team trend is going to continue.
Read moreEuropa League – Matchday 2 Recap