Europa Conference League: Villa favourites to lift trophy under perennial winner Emery
Published:
Fiorentina 13/2 in Europa Conference League winner odds
Aston Villa are the early favourites to win the Europa Conference League after the draw for the group stage was made in Monaco.
Villa, hoping to repeat West Ham’s triumph in June, were drawn alongside AZ Alkmaar, Legia Warsaw and Zrinjski ahead of their return to European football after a 13-year absence.
Here, we look at the main contenders to win the competition and their Europa Conference League odds.
Aston Villa
If Villa are to win their first European trophy in 42 years they could not have a better man in charge than Unai Emery.
The Spaniard won the Europa League in three successive seasons with Sevilla between 2014-16 and five years later repeated the trick with Villarreal.
Emery also reached the final with Arsenal in 2019, so he is likely to take this competition very seriously and has the squad to lift the trophy in Athens in May.
Fiorentina
La Viola suffered last-minute heartbreak in last season’s final against the Hammers and they have been given another chance to banish that memory after Juventus were disqualified from the qualifiers because of financial breaches.
Fiorentina had to overcome a first-leg deficit against Rapid Vienna to reach the group stage where they will face Genk, Ferencvaros and Serbian side Cukaricki.
Luka Jovic and Sofyan Ambrabat, who both played in the final against West Ham, have joined AC Milan and Manchester United respectively, so they are arguably weaker than last season.
Eintracht Frankfurt
Frankfurt appointed Dino Toppmoller as their new head coach in the summer and Julian Nagelsmann’s assistant at RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich has a lot to live up to in European terms.
The Eagles reached the Europa League final in 2022 and the round of 16 in last season’s Champions League, and although they have made an uninspiring start to the new Bundesliga campaign, they are at least unbeaten.
They have been busy in the transfer window during which they sold star striker Randal Kolo Muani to PSG for around £77m, but should have enough to get past Aberdeen, PAOK and HJK in the group stage.
AZ Alkmaar
The Dutch side lost 3-1 on aggregate to West Ham in last season’s semi-finals, and fourth place in the Eredivisie ensured a place in the qualifiers where they beat Santa Colomo and then Brann on penalties after both legs ended in draws.
AZ have won their first three domestic games to top the table heading into the international break, so it’s been a decent start to the campaign and they could cause a surprise against Villa under respected coach Pascal Jansen.
Best of the rest
Lille made it to the knockout stage of last season’s Champions League where they lost to Chelsea in the last 16, but a fifth-placed finish in Ligue 1 ensured it would be third-tier European football this time round.
They needed an extra-time winner to squeeze past Rijeka in qualifying but after a good start to their domestic campaign will feel confident about finishing above Slovan Bratislava, Olimpija Ljubljana and Klaksvik. Lille are 14/1 to win the Europa Conference League.
Club Brugge finished above Atletico Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen to reach the last 16 of the Champions League last season, but were destroyed by Benfica. They needed two goals in the last quarter of an hour to squeeze past Osasuna in their final Europa Conference League qualifier, but still look good value at 20/1 bearing in mind they are Champions League regulars, although Besiktas and Bodo/Glimt will be no pushovers in the group stage.
Fellow Belgians Genk are likely to face a fight with Ferencvaros for the runners-up spot behind Fiorentina and are also 20/1 to lift the trophy, while Turkish sides Fenerbahce and Besiktas are 25/1 and 33/1 respectively.
All odds and markets correct as of date of publication
