The UEFA Europa League quarter final first leg kick-off today and we will be giving an insight into the matches available. The quarter final match involves 8 teams that have made it through the round of . They are; Arsenal, Napoli, Eintrancht Frankfurt, Slavia Praha, Chelsea, Benfica, Villarreal and Valencia.
ARSENAL VS NAPOLI (PREVIEW)
Arsenal came into this fixture after winning a french ligue1 team Stade Rennes at the Emirate Stadium which sees the English team to qualify on 4-3 aggregate.
Napoli on the other hand also qualify after beating RB Salzburg of Austria on a 4-3 aggregate.
Arsenal and Napoli have only met each other twice in a two legged fixture in the group stage of the UEFA champiuons league in 2013/14 which the English team won 2-0 at the Emirate Stadium and played a goaless.
Arsenal have reached the quarter final of European competition for consecutive season since 2008-09/ 2009-2010 in the champions league
Napoli have reached the quarter final of UEFA cup/ Europa League for the third time in their history
Arsenal have been beaten just once out of their last 17 home games in the UEFA Cup/ Europa League(w12 d4)
Napoli have never beaten an English opposition away from home in European coompetition (P8 W0 D1 L7)
SLAVIA PRAHA VS CHELSEA (PREVIEW)
This is the first time these two teams will be meeting in competitive match. The Czech team has only won once out of nine meetings with an English side
This is Chelsea’s 10th European quarter final and they have progress nine times out of it
Chelsea have won more games (nine) than any other team in the competition this season. The team Striker Olivier Giroud is the leading scorer of the competition presently with 9 goals
VILLARREAL VS VALENCIA (PREVIEW)
This is a clash between two Spanish side and this promise to be an interesting fixture. This two teams have met twice in the UEFA Cup semi final in 2003-04 seeing Valencia victorious with a 1-0 win on home turf
This fixture makes it Villarreal’s fifth appearance in the competition quarter final stage while Valencia is having a record of ninth times in the competition
Valencia have been beaten twice out of their last eleven games in the Europa league (W8 D1) and both games are to fellow Spanish team- Sevilla and Athletic club
BENFICA VS EINTRACHT FRANKFURT (PREVIEW)
This is the first time these two teams will be meeting in a competitive game.
Benfica are unbeaten against German opposition (W5 D1) while frankfurt have never lose against a portuguese opposition in the competition (D2)
Benfica has never lose a game on home soil since the inception of Europa League in 2009/10 (P20 W17 D3)
This is Frankfurt’s fifth quarter final game of the UEFA Cup/Europa League
