UEFA Europa League Football Betting 2011
Following the successful rebranding of the UEFA Cup the UEFA Europa League will this year continue in the same format for a second season under its new guise. The UEFA Cup had previously been running for 38 years making this the 40th staging of the tournament which pits European football’s bridesmaids against one another.
Atletico Madrid are the defending champions having defeated Roy Hodgson’s Fulham in last year’s final, courtesy of an injury-time Diego Forlan strike.
This year’s final will be played on 18 May 2011 at the Aviva Stadium, Dublin, or what is more commonly known to you and me as Lansdowne Road.
Although many of the more recognised teams didn’t enter the competition until the latter qualifying rounds, play-off rounds or group stages, UEFA Europa League Football Betting 2011 began in principle at the first qualifying round on 1 July 2010. However, the majority of teams at this stage are unrecognisable to even the most avid of football fans and Europe as a whole doesn’t really sit up and take notice until the play-off rounds when some of the more household names enter the UEFA Europa League Football Betting 2011 fray.
UEFA Europa League Knockout Betting
The group winners and runners-up progress to the UEFA Europa League knockout stages where they are joined, controversially, by eight third placed finishers from the Champions League group stages.
The draw for the round of 32 and round of 16 was made simultaneously on 17 December 2010 with the first knockout round beginning on 17 February 2011. Following the conclusion of the round of 16 matches on 17 March 2011 the draw for the remainder of the competition, quarter-finals and semi-final, are made the following day in Nyon, Switzerland.
UEFA Europa League Football Betting 2011 concludes with the final in Dublin when punters will be hoping to collect on their early season bets, or are perhaps left wondering what could have been if only they had followed their intuition.
UEFA Europa League Early Round Betting
There are a few names in the UEFA Europa League third qualifying round hat this year that many would not associate with having to participate in the qualifying rounds. Both Liverpool and Juventus were Champions League competitors last year but poor form in their respective domestic league campaigns last year means that they enter the Europa League competition at one of the earlier stages. Galatasaray, AZ Alkmaar and Stuttgart also enter the tournament at the third qualifying round.
Winners of the third qualifying round ties will then go into the play-off round where the rest of Europe’s UEFA Europa league qualifiers await, including the likes of Manchester City, Aston Villa, Mallorca, Getafe, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli, Paris St-Germain and Dundee United. The play-off round matches will be drawn on 6 August 2010 and played on 19 & 26 August 2010.
You can of course divulge in UEFA Europa League Football Betting 2011 at any of these stages with the majority of the online bookmakers listed on our home page.
UEFA Europa League Group Stage Betting
The UEFA Europa League group stages will be drawn in Monaco on 27 August 2010. The 37 winners from the Europa League play-off rounds will be joined by the 10 losers from Champions League 2010-2011 play-off rounds and defending champions Atletico Madrid.
The 48 clubs will be drawn into 12 groups of four, with each club being seeded depending upon UEFA coefficients, and the top two teams from each group – following home and away games against each of the other teams in their group – will then progress to the knockout stages of the tournament. The group stages are when the UEFA Europa League Football Betting 2011 begins in earnest.
UEFA Europa League Fixtures
Visit the UEFA Europa League official site here for up to date fixture lists.