Getafe win but Spanish favourites struggle on opening night

Last year’s Europa League champions and third favourites for this year’s title suffered an opening night defeat in Greece against unknown Aris Thessaloniki.

After defeating Inter Milan in the European Super Cup, Atletico Madrid’s confidence was high entering the tournament as current champions, but that confidence would’ve taken a big hit with their defeat last night.

Atletico are 12/1 to win the Europa League behind Manchester City, 5/1, and Liverpool, 8/1, but they have slipped to 5/4 to win Group B and rivals Bayer Leverkusen, who thumped Rosenborg 4-0, are now 6/5 favourites to top the group.

Leverkusen make the trip to Spain in their next game and it’s worth taking the 5/4 for Atletico to win Group B as that will shorten if they defeat the German side on home soil.

Nene’s 76th minute goal for Paris Saint-Germain secured them the win over Sevilla and the Spanish side, who were 11/10 to top Group J, are now 23/10 behind PSG, 6/4, and Borussia Dortmund, 6/4, to top the group.

Despite not being favourites to progress from their group, Sevilla are still available at 14/1 to win the competition which seems a bit short when you take into account Borussia Dortmund are 16/1 and PSG are 50/1 to win the Europa League title.

Antonio Alvarez’s side face a tough trip away to Dortmund for their next game and a loss in Germany would mean Sevilla will have a difficult task in qualifying for the second round.

Villarreal also went down 2-0 away at Dinamo Zagreb but Getafe were able to provide Spain with some cheer after their win over Danish side OB.

Manchester City are favourites for the Europa League at 5/1. See the latest UEFA Europa League football betting markets here.