So the Champions League warmup act has been and gone, and now the real fun starts. That’s how it works, isn’t it? The Europa League is now starting to get serious -- or as serious as it can get -- as we head into the second legs of the round of 32 games on Thursday.
UEFA Europa League 2014, Round of 32 preview: Who’ll reach the final 16?
The Europa League final 16 will be determined on Thursday, with the round of 32 second legs to be polished off.
Michael Steele
There are a lot of ties still very finely poised after cagey first legs, with Napoli vs. Swansea City, Sevilla vs. Maribor, Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Porto and Lyon vs. Chornomorets among the matches tied on aggregate -- albeit with some of said first leg draws having featured potentially-decisive away goals.
Elsewhere, Lazio will look to overturn a one-goal deficit away at Ludgorets, while Tottenham Hotspur try and do the same at home to Dnipro. Among the favourites to lift the trophy are Fiorentina, Juventus and Valencia, with all three sides defending two goal leads heading into the reverse fixtures. Ajax will hope they can pull off an unlikely comeback in Salzburg, and overturn their three goal deficit.
Here’s the full fixture list, with the aggregate scoreline in brackets:
12 PM ET
Rubin Kazan vs. Real Betis (1-1)
1 PM ET
Napoli vs. Swansea City (0-0)
Sevilla vs. Maribor (2-2)
Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Viktoria Plzeň (1-1)
Ludgorets vs. Lazio (1-0)
Salzburg vs. Ajax (3-0)
Basel vs. Maccabi Tel Aviv (0-0)
Eintracht Frankfurt vs. Porto (2-2)
3:05 PM ET
Tottenham Hotspur vs. FC Dnipro (0-1)
Trabzonspor vs. Juventus (0-2)
Lyon vs. Chornomorets (0-0)
Fiorentina vs. Esbjerg (3-1)
Genk vs. Anzhi (0-0)
Valencia vs. Dynamo Kyiv (2-0)
Benfica vs. PAOK (1-0)
AZ vs. Slovan Liberec (1-0)
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