It is another busy day for glory seeking clubs in Europe as the first leg quarter-final matches of the Europa League hold on Thursday.
With Arsenal and Manchester United’s exit from the Round of 16 in the UEFA Champions League, coupled with Chelsea’s and Manchester City’s failure to progress past the group stages of the tournament, British soccer fans can take consolation in Europa cup glory.
The current European champions, Chelsea, together with Newcastle United and Tottenham Hotspur are in the last eight of the UEFA Europa League.
The draw for the quarter-finals, held in Nyon on March 15, kept the English sides apart, meaning that Fenerbahce’s match with Lazio is the only tie not involving a Premier League club.
It pitted Chelsea with Rubin Kazan, Spurs with Basel and Newcastle with Benfica.
The four match-ups are ‘firsts’ for the respective clubs, as these teams have never met before in European competition.
Chelsea’s match against Rubin is the start of five matches in 13 days for Rafael Benitez’s side, but they go into the game buoyed by a 1-0 win over Manchester United in their FA Cup quarter-final clash.
However, the Russian outfit have already eliminated holders, Atletico Madrid, and have not lost in five European away games.
The Londoners, however, have extra motivation: success in the UEFA would make them the first British side to complete a clean sweep of the three major UEFA club honours (European Champion Clubs’ Cup, UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League).
Tottenham Hotspur’s reward for knocking out Inter Milan in the last round is a meeting with Basel, the Swiss champions for the last three seasons.
Tottenham Hotspur reached the quarter-finals of a European competition in 2005/06, when English side, Middlesbrough, knocked them out of the then UEFA Cup.
Newcastle United are the only member of the English trio yet to win a top UEFA tournament – and they seemingly have the toughest task, with former European champions, Benfica, lying in wait in Lisbon on April 4.
The Magpies, though, have earned a reputation for resilience under manager Alan Pardew, having kept clean sheets in all four European games since Christmas.
In each of the previous two campaigns in which a country has had three sides in the quarter-finals, one went on to lift the trophy – FC Porto in 2010/11 and Atletico Madrid last May.
Indeed, both beat domestic rivals in the final.
The five non-English teams in this season’s competition will have something to say about that, though.
Fixtures
April 4
UEFA Europa League
7:05 PM – Benfica vs Newcastle
7:05 PM – Chelsea vs Rubin Kazan
7:05 PM – Fenerbahce vs Lazio
7:05 PM – Tottenham vs FC Basel
