UEFA Europa League knockout phase play-offs: Top matchups to watch
The UEFA Europa League knockout phase play-offs are set to kick off on Thursday, with some exciting matchups in store.
Porto and Roma will face off in a heavyweight clash, while José Mourinho's Fenerbahçe takes on Anderlecht, and Midtjylland goes head-to-head with Real Sociedad. Teams finishing in 9th to 24th place in the inaugural league phase have now learned their fate for the February play-offs following January’s draw.
News.Az, citing UEFA.com, presents some key points to look out for ahead of the first legs.
13 February
Early games (18:45 CET)
Ferencváros vs Viktoria Plzeň
Fenerbahçe vs Anderlecht
Midtjylland vs Real Sociedad
Union SG vs Ajax
Late games (21:00 CET)
AZ Alkmaar vs Galatasaray
PAOK vs FCSB
Porto vs Roma
Twente vs Bodø/Glimt
Porto vs Roma
A high-profile match-up between two sides who most recently faced each other in a Champions League round of 16 tie in the 2018/19 season. On that occasion, Porto edged a 4-3 aggregate win after extra time, Alex Telles proving to be the hero with an 117th-minute penalty. The Giallorossi finished just one point above the Dragons in this season's league phase, and it would be no surprise if this ends up another extremely close and hard-fought battle.
Porto will hope their prolific forward Samu can once again cause problems, with the 20-year-old Spanish international having already scored five goals in this season's tournament. Roma, however, have conceded fewer times than any other knockout play-off phase team (6), and are proving themselves a difficult prospect to break down.
Roma have never won a two-legged tie against Porto, also losing a Champions League play-off 4-1 on aggregate in the 2016/17 campaign.
Fenerbahçe vs Anderlecht
Fenerbahçe coach José Mourinho is attempting to plot his way towards a fourth Europa League/UEFA Cup final, but faces a tricky task against an Anderlecht side who only missed out on progression to the round of 16 by virtue of goal difference. Fener started their campaign positively by going unbeaten in their opening three games (W1 D2), but subsequently won only one of their final five (D2 L2), and Mourinho will need to summon all his experience and wisdom to get his team firing on all fronts again.
Anderlecht certainly have history in this competition, winning the UEFA Cup in 1983 and making it to the final again the following season before being defeated by Tottenham. A particularly impressive win at Real Sociedad in the league phase showed that David Hubert's side are more than capable of going away to tough places and getting a positive result, and they'll need to draw on that experience in front of what will, as ever, be a noisy atmosphere in Türkiye.
These two teams were drawn in the same Europa League group in the 2018/19 season. A 2-2 draw in Belgium was followed by a 2-0 Fenerbahçe home victory.
Midtjylland vs Real Sociedad
Midtjylland have reached the knockout play-off phase of the Europa League only once before, where they lost 5-1 on aggregate to Sporting CP in the 2022/23 season. They will hope to do better this time around, and unlike Real Sociedad will be well-rested, with their domestic season not starting until mid-February.
This was picked up on by former La Real midfielder Xabi Prieto, who told UEFA.com: "Midtjylland have their season break until February, while we will be playing a lot, so it will be interesting to see who takes advantage of their situation. We're very excited and it will be a tough knockout tie." The prize for whichever side progresses is a round of 16 meeting with either Manchester United or Tottenham.
Four of Midtjylland's eight league phase games finished in a 2-0 scoreline.
Plus
- AZ Alkmaar and Galatasaray will be reacquainted after they faced each other in the league phase, with that encounter in November ending 1-1 after Victor Osimhen cancelled out Sven Mijnans' early strike.
- Bucharest-born PAOK coach Răzvan Lucescu will go up against his hometown club when his team take on FCSB.
- Ajax have a short trip across the Netherlands-Belgium border to take on Union SG, in what is set to be the first competitive meeting between the two clubs.
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