Sporting Lisbon are now the outsiders after knocking out Arsenal. Also watch out for Sevilla and Feyenoord
United are undoubtedly now the most dangerous rivals for the Budapest final. Manchester United are sailing in 3rd place in the Premier League with the best striker of 2023, Marcus Rashford, 16 goals this year in all competitions and 19 since after the World Cup; top scorer of this cup with 6 centers and Bruno Fernandes with 3 assists, among the tops. Ten Hag swept Betis, 5th in La Liga, and Barcelona in the playoffs; apart from the slaps with Liverpool (0-7) he hasn’t lost since January, with Arsenal, and has the 2nd cup attack (19 goals). In short, he no longer makes any missteps with small-medium sized teams, attentive defense, with 4 clean sheets (in 9 games), like Arsenal.
Ruben Amorim’s Sporting from Lisbon deserves a lot of respect for the feat in London, because they lost the Champions League in the last match of the group against Eintracht, after beating Tottenham, for having talent like Pedro Gonçalves “Pote” (in goal against Arsenal from 50 metres…) attacking midfielder, striker, leader; and also the ex Spurs Edwards, the ex Barcelona Trincão, the forward Paulinho and the Spaniard Adan in goal, who saved the decisive penalty from Gabriel Martinelli yesterday.
In La Liga he is suffering like hell, he is 13th, only 2 points above the abyss, the result of a bad start to the season with 7 defeats in the league out of 14 matches and the penultimate place. But in the last 10 games he has won 5, and in Europe he has eliminated PSV in the playoffs (coming from the Champions League, where they were eliminated by City and Dortmund) and Fenerbahçe, not bad. This is then “his” cup par excellence, he has won it 4 times in the last decade, the last one in 2020 against Inter, with 7 finalists still present in the squad.
In Rotterdam they believe in the brace with the Eredivisie. At home Feyenoord are +3 ahead of Ajax, whom they face on Sunday, and have not lost since September; in Europe he submerged Shakhtar (7-1), won the Lazio group (even if on equal points) and has the best attack (21 goals). Watch out for the Argentinian Giménez (5 goals in Europe), the Turkish captain Kokcu from Harlem and the Brazilian striker Danilo (12 goals this season).
Xabi Alonso’s boys, who have been on the bench since October, are behind in Germany (ninth), but before the Spaniard’s arrival they were penultimate. Bayer Leverkusen now comes from 5 total victories in the last 6 games, after the Champions (ko in the group stage) they knocked out Monaco and Ferencvaros; forward has Schick, Azmoun, Demirbay, Diaby, Hudson-Odoi and Wirtz, that’s no small thing. Finally here is the surprise, the Union St. Gilloise. Runners-up Belgium, less than 25 years of age on average, made a splash in the round of 16 by knocking out Union Berlin. Seconds again this year in the league, they won their group again against the Berliners and Sporting Braga, winning all 3 away matches. The leaders are the 22-year-old Nigerian Boniface 5 goals in Europe, 14 this season, and the Maltese midfielder Teuma, 10 goals. The most affordable, however for Juve and Roma.
March 17, 2023 (change March 17, 2023 | 00:42)
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