Spanish teams looking for Europa League ‘full-house’

All four Spanish LaLiga representatives in the Europa League will be hoping to be the Uefa glass bowl for tomorrow’s round of 16 draw in Nyon. Both Valencia and Sevilla should face relative trouble free evenings in Norway and Austria given the considerable advantage from last Thursday’s first leg ties with 6-0 and 3-0 score lines respectively. A more complicated evening awaits both Athletic Club and Villarreal after their 1-0 wins against Marseille and Napoli.

Rapid Vienna – Valencia

Gary Neville has brought five youth team players with him to the Austrian capital --Mariano Konyk, Toni Lato, Fran Villalba, Tropi and Rafa Mir with key players such as Diego Alves, Cancelo, Enzo Pérez, André Gomes and Denis Cheryshev not making the trip. Given the recent pressure the English coach has suffered, tonight’s game will be a tension free opportunity for the Salfod born Neville to give fringe squad players and younger talent a chance to play in a major European tie at the Ernst-Happel-Stadion.

Athletic - Marseille

San Mames hosts a duel between two sides capable of the unexpected. Michel’s Marseille would be third in Ligue 1 if their away form was applied, as it happens the side from the Cote D’Azur is in 11th place with the Spanish coach under constant pressure at a club where demands are high. Michy Batshuayi returns for the French side who need to score and will be buoyed on by 1,200 travelling fans. For the home side, Valverde is without Williams (injured) and the suspended Beñat and will be hoping that his team’s poor performance in Sunday’s Basque derby was just a blip.

Napoli – Villarreal

A packed San Paolo awaits Villarreal this evening with the Neapolitan fans among the most passionate in Italian football as ‘El Submarino’ will hope to maintain their impressive run of 12 games unbeaten in the domestic Spanish league. Callejon and Higuain provide the attacking threat for the Serie A side and Marcelino will be hoping that Villarreal’s tight defence (17 of their 35 games this season have seen the team not concede) will hold the Neapolitan onslaught at bay.

Molde – Sevilla

After last week’s game at the Sanchez Pizjuan, Molde coach Ole Gunnar Solskjær acknowledged that “Seville may win the return leg too”. Emery will have one eye on this weekend’s LaLiga fixture when Sevilla travel to Camp Nou and will rotate the squad and hope that the 3000 km Norwegian trip is injury free. Fernando Llorente who celebrates his 31 birthday tomorrow will be the target man for the Spanish side.