Despite a major scare against Dnipro in the round of 32, Tottenham remain as second favourites to win the Europa League this season with most bookmakers quoting around the 6/1 – 7/1 mark. However, we are some way behind Juventus who now head the outright winner market at a best of 11/4 with Ladbrokes.
Juve were comfortable, 4-0 winners over Trabzonspor but have a difficult tie against Fiorentina who were among the early favourites during the group stages. Napoli also feature heavily in the betting but will have to overcome Porto who eliminated our dark horses Eintracht Frankfurt on the away goals rule.
As for our next opponents Benfica, they are among the fifth favourites at 12/1 and while the bookies expect us to qualify from that game, the Portuguese offer the better value to go through after two legs.
Benfica are five points clear at the top of the league and on a long unbeaten run that stretches back to November and the Champions League. We did it last year – scraping through the knockouts before our meeting with Basle but can we hope to overcome the Portuguese league leaders and justify bookmakers’ odds which continue to put us amongst the favourites?
If we play like last night Benfica will smash us to bits
Sherwood needs to give up on Soldado. How many chances do you give a guy?Just because he has a high price tag is no reason to keep playing him.It is like playing with 10 men he contributes nothing and cant even do the basics well.If Sherwood wants to play with two up front the support to ADE should be Kane ,Erickson or Townsend ( who i do not see as a winger ) he should be a free spirit like,Bale.Walcott or Suarez.We will win nothing playing with Soldado .It is like with ten men .The rest of the team carry him.Please no more. Tim.
Clearly, you’re not watching the same games I am. The Solider may not be scoring — is even botching simple chances — but he’s working hard all over the pitch, including getting the ball forward and/or into the box with a lot of key passes. If only some of the other players put in the same effort as consistently. Defences will always see him as dangerous, which draws them away from his team-mates and opens up chances for them to score and/or set up goals. The game’s about a hell of a lot more than goals, even where purported goals-scorers are concerned. You have some learning to do.