Europa League: Seville prepares for a Northern Invasion!

Eintracht Frankfurt vs Rangers 

Eintracht Frankfurt and Rangers are set to meet in the Europa League final at Seville’s Ramon Sanchez Pizjuan Stadium on Wednesday, and the Spanish city will welcome some of the most passionate fans from Northern Europe.

Eintracht are flying the flag for Germany after FC Bayern failed to beat Villarreal in the Champions League quarter final and their fanatical and huge support has been a feature of the competition, most notably in a 3-2 win against Barcelona at the Camp Nou when the tie looked and sounded like it was played in Frankfurt.

And Rangers too have their loyal fans travelling in numbers wherever they go, and they deafened the Yellow Wall in a stunning victory over Borussia Dortmund.

Both those Europa League 2022 results sent shockwaves through the competition as the two hot favourites for the final had been dumped and now Eintracht, at SBOTOP odds of 1.65, are in the box seat to win the trophy. The Eagles are only the third team to reach the Europa League final unbeaten, after Chelsea in 2019 and Villarreal last season, but Rangers will put up a real fight at odds of 2.26.

Frankfurt come into the game on the back of a 2-2 Bundesliga draw away to Mainz while Rangers had a comfortable 3-1 win over Hearts to finish second in the Scottish Premier League.  

Talking Points

Route to the final

The Eagles came through the group stages with three wins and three draws but they needed extra time in a Round of 16 victory over Real Betis.

The quarter final win over Barcelona, 3-2 in the Camp Nou, was arguably the result of the tournament, and they went on to beat highly fancied West Ham in the semi-final.

Rangers had a slow start at the group stage, but emerged in second place with two victories, two draws and two losses. But they picked up two shock wins over Bundesliga sides in the knockout stages, beating BVB in the play-off and Red Bull Leipzig in the semi-final, so Eintracht have their warning right there. The Gers also saw off Red Star Belgrade and Braga on the way to the final.  

The Eagles fly on the break

Oliver Glasner’s Frankfurt are happy to sit back and concede possession and strike on the break, as they did with supreme confidence against the Blaugrana, so it will be interesting to see how much of the ball they have against more modest opponents. Flying wingback Filip Kostic is Eintracht’s star man; so Rangers will give the 29 year old Serb international plenty of attention. He delivers a dangerous ball, often to top scorer Daichi Kamada, and he also has a fierce shot on him, scoring against both Barcelona and Real Betis.

Frankfurt have done well to negotiate a busy schedule in the Bundesliga as well as working their way through a difficult route to the Europa final. Head coach Glasner arrived in Frankfurt after three successful years at Wolfsburg and he could finish his first campaign with the Eagles by bringing home a trophy.  

Braveheart Tavernier carries the hopes of a nation    

Rangers beat Hearts on Saturday despite resting all of their key players and they face the same team in the Scottish Cup Final next week. The victory meant the Gers trailed fierce rivals Celtic by four points at the conclusion of the SPL season and they would love to eclipse the Hoops by winning two trophies this week. 

Captain James Tavernier has carried the fight for the Scots and he will lead his team into battle on Wednesday. The former Leeds Academy player has scored seven goals from right back and opened the scoring in Rangers’ stunning 4-2 win away to Borussia Dortmund, Marco Reus, Jude Bellingham and all. Tavernier has become the Gers’ talisman in the competition scoring all his goals at the knockout phase. And he’s issued a rallying call to his players and the fans, saying: “We have got to fancy ourselves. We are in the final of the Europa League. You reach the final for a reason, so we’re upbeat; we are full of confidence and we are going to give it absolutely everything we’ve got.”

Head coach Giovanni van Bronckhorst took over at Rangers half way through the season, following Steven Gerrard’s move to Aston Villa, and few expected him to lead the club to two trophies in such a short space of time, but with Tavernier on the pitch he has every chance.  

History

The Eagles are former Champions of the Bundesliga, in 1959, and five times winners of the DFB Pokal and they have had success in Europe too. They came within one game of conquering the continent in 1960, reaching the final of the European Cup (forerunner of the Champions League) and Frankfurt won the UEFA Cup in 1980.

Eintracht came across Rangers in that 1960 European Cup campaign, beating the Scots on their way to a final defeat to Real Madrid.

Rangers have had European success too, winning the Cup Winners Cup in 1972.

In terms of recent form, Rangers have won four of the last five while the Eagles have drawn three and lost two but, with respect to the SPL, Frankfurt fans won’t read too much into that.   

Betting Tip

The Europa League 2022 betting odds tell us we’re in for a battle royal in Seville with the draw at odds of 3.25 and Rangers at 2.62 to win in 90 minutes.

Both teams have been giant killers in this competition, but I suspect the favourites will come out on top on Wednesday, and I think we’ll see goals, so take a look at an alternative bet on Over 2.50 goals at odds of 1.90. 

 

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