So, how are Ajax doing? Well, not too well. Dnipro have taken a physical approach and the young Ajax team look a little tentative. Matos has just been booked fortrying to re-popularise the 1980s-style tackle from behind.
In the absence of any goals can anyone think of any English players left in Europe other than Micah Richards at Fiorentina? Mark Clattenburg and Martin Atkinson don’t count.
Twelve minutes gone. No goals. Although Brugge have turned it on against Besiktas. De Bock has just hit a shot from 25 yards straight down the throat of Zengin. It was wobbling left and right in the air like a 99p flyaway.
Besiktas fans must have calf muscles like professional cyclists. They’re bouncing incessantly. Unfortunately their team has been a little laboured against Brugge so far. They seems more than happy to keep possession in sterile areas. Brugge’s kit is more of an Inter kit than the one Inter are wearing. Lovely light and dark blue stripes. Very retro.
Inter are playing in electric blue at home. This is upsetting some people.
I'm not *against* this Inter kit, but it's not really an Inter kit is it? More like Slovenia away.
— Jack Pitt-Brooke (@JackPittBrooke) March 19, 2015
Wasn’t it traditional in years gone by for the European home team to change kits? People?
Updated
Inter have just gone very close to getting an early goal back against Wolfsburg but elsewhere it’s been a fairly quiet start. Come on Europa League!
Ajax are a young side. I feel old.
Only two players from the '80s, just (1989) in Ajax' starting line-up today. Sinkgraven and Bazoer weren't born when Ajax won CL in 1995.
— Michiel Jongsma (@JongsmaJongsma) March 19, 2015
Right, back to tonight’s matches then. The teams are trotting out around the grounds – stadiums that look rammed and noisy, unlike many of the English grounds for Europa League matches this season. Maybe English clubs don’t deserve to go very far in a tournament that they don’t appear to care about.
Everton are out. Beaten 5-2 on the night, they have lost 6-4 on aggregate. That’s the first time for 20 years that there’ll be no English team in the quarter-finals of European competition. Read into that what you will.
Juan Pablo Carrizo may be busy in the Inter goal tonight.
171 - Wolfsburg had the most shots (171) so far in the Europa League 2014/15. Attack. #INTWOL
— OptaFranz (@OptaFranz) March 19, 2015
Peep! Roma have been knocked out. They’ve lost 3-0 at home to Fiorentina. That’s 4-1 on aggregate. They’ve shipped some goals at home in Europe this season. Fiorentina’s players are lapping up their fans’ celebrations. Roma’s players are skulking off all heavy shoulders and even heavier hearts.
Updated
Sevilla v Villarreal team news, featuring Martin Atkinson
Sevilla: Sergio Rico, Diogo Figueiras, Pareja, Kolodzieczak, Tremoulinas, Alex Vidal, Mbia, Carrico, Vitolo, Iborra, Gameiro. Subs: Barbosa, Bacca, Fernando Navarro, Reyes, Aspas, Suarez, Coke.
Villarreal: Sergio Asenjo, Mario, Musacchio, Bailly, Rukavina, Jonathan, Pina, Trigueros, Campbell, Uche, Vietto. Subs: Juan Carlos, Jokic, Giovani, Dorado, Moi Gomez, Moreno, Marcos.
Referee: Martin Atkinson (England)
In among all this exciting team news Everton got a goal back. Jagielka scored it. So it’s 6-4 to Dynamo on aggregate with five minutes left. Everton need two goals to go through. Join Scott Murray to see if they can get them …
You want Torino v Zenit team news? It’s your lucky day
Torino: Padelli, Maksimovic, Glik, Moretti, Darmian, El Kaddouri, Gazzi, Farnerud, Molinaro, Maxi Lopez, Quagliarella. Subs: Castellazzi, Bovo, Martinez, Jansson, Silva, Amauri, Masiello.
Zenit St Petersburg: Lodygin, Smolnikov, Luis Neto, Garay, Criscito, Hulk, Tymoschuk, Witsel, Shatov, Rondon, Danny. Subs: Baburin, Ryazantsev, Lombaerts, Mogilevets, Rodic, Zuev, Sheidaev.
Referee: Matej Jug (Slovenia)
Inter v Wolfsburg team news, featuring Mark Clattenburg
Inter: Carrizo, Santon, Ranocchia, Juan Jesus, Campagnaro, Hernanes, Medel, Guarin, Kovacic, Icardi, Palacio. Subs: Handanovic, Vidic, Kuzmanovic, Obi, Puscas, D’Ambrosio, Shaqiri.
Wolfsburg: Benaglio, Trasch, Knoche, Klose, Rodriguez, Vieirinha, Guilavogui, Gustavo, Caligiuri, De Bruyne, Dost. Subs: Grun, Bendtner, Schafer, Perisic, Schurrle, Jung, Arnold.
Referee: Mark Clattenburg (England)
Updated
Here’s your Ajax v Dnipro team news
Ajax: Cillessen, Van Rhijn, Veltman, Viergever, Boilesen, Bazoer, Klaassen, Sinkgraven, El Ghazi, Milik, Kishna. Subs: Boer, Moisander, van der Hoorn, Sigthorsson, Riedewald, Schone, Serero.
Dnipro: Boyko, Leo Matos, Douglas, Evgeni Cheberyachko, Egidio, Luchkevych, Kankava, Fedorchuk, Konoplyanka, Bezus, Kalinic. Subs: Lastuvka, Seleznyov, Bruno Gama, Shakhov, Svatok, Mihunov, Blyznychenko.
Referee: Aleksei Kulbakov (Belarus)
Oh dear Everton! It’s now 5-1 to Dynamo Kyiv (agg 6-3). Roberto Martínez’s assertion that his team wouldn’t go to Ukraine to defend their lead has proven true.
Besiktas v Club Brugge team news
Besiktas: Zengin, Opare, Uysal, Franco, Ramon, Arslan, Kavlak, Tore, Sahan, Pektemek, Ba. Subs: Gonen, Hutchinson, Ozyakup, Frei, Gulum, Tosun, Nukan.
Club Brugge: Ryan, Mechele, Izquierdo, De Fauw, Duarte, De Bock, Vormer, Simons, Rafaelov, Meunier, De Sutter. Subs: Kujovic, Silva, Felipe Gedoz, Storm, Dierckx, Oulare, Bolingoli Mbombo.
Referee: Sergey Karasev (Moscow)
In case you were wondering, Roma are getting hammered 3-0 by Fiorentina at the Stadio Olimpico. that’s 1-4 on aggregate. The natives are restless.
Updated
Preamble
Evening. There are five 8.05pm kick-offs in the Europa League tonight. Look, here they are:
Ajax v Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk (agg 0-1)
Besiktas v Club Brugge (agg 1-2)
Internazionale v Wolfsburg (agg 1-3)
Sevilla v Villarreal (agg 3-1)
Torino v Zenit St Petersburg (agg 0-2)
Looking at that list there’s really only one match that looks to be a dead rubber, Sevilla v Villarreal, where The Yellow Submarine seem to have given themselves too much to do in Seville.
But some of those other ties look a bit tasty. The Ataturk will be a seething mass of bouncing bodies and noise for the visit of Club Brugge, who have a slender advantage over the Turkish league leaders who knocked Liverpool out on penalties in the last round. But Brugge, a grand old club of European competition, are yet to be beaten in the Europa League this season and they too lead their domestic league. They have a bit of gumption about them too, having come back from a goal behind in the first leg to lead 2-1. But Slaven Bilic, the Besiktas manager, reckons his team have enough about them to go through. “If we play as well as we can, we will qualify for the quarter-finals. We will have around 70,000 players at the Ataturk Olimpiyat Stadium – like we did for the Liverpool game in the last round.” That’s cheating isn’t it?
Where next? How about Amsterdam and another old European heavyweight? Ajax manager Frank De Boer wants his team to play like Arsenal to come from a goal down against Dnipro and progress to the last eight. “The way they played against Monaco is the way we would like to play as well. High pressure, get the ball back very quickly. I really love the way Arsenal play. When I look at their goals, it sometimes looks like futsal. Passing, moving and always at a high tempo.” Now, using glorious failure as a way to rally the troops is either a very strange motivational technique or more likely a reminder to the Arsenal board that there’s another manager out there who’d be willing to take Arsenal to the last 16 in Europe sometime in the future. Ajax trail PSV by 11 points in the Eredivisie. A European final would be a welcome way of keeping the fans happy.
If there are going to be any heroics tonight they’ll likely come in Italy, where Inter and Torino face uphill tasks but who both have home advantage. The city of Milan could do with a lift and Inter, who carry an away goal into their match, could be the team to deliver it. They face an imposing Wolfsburg side, though, who walloped Freiburg 3-0 at the weekend to pull nine points clear of third-placed Monchengladbach and are the only team who could possibly do the impossible and haul in Bayern Munich at the top of the Bundesliga. They also have Kevin De Bruyne in superb form. With 11 assists and 14 goals this season he is at the heart of everything good that Wolfsburg do. Inter are likely to be without Xerdan Shaqiri though. Even if he starts he will be nursing a hamstring strain. But Inter are the most-decorated side in the competition’s history (we’re talking Uefa Cup/Europa League here) and are proud of that. They’ll have to play with that pride if they’re to turn the tie around.
As for Torino, they were undone by Marco Benassi’s first-half red card against Zenit in the first leg. But with no away goal they have very little wriggle room tonight. They’re unbeaten in Europe going back to 1993. Being unbeaten won’t be enough tonight, mind. They’ll have to risk that proud record to come through against tough opponents.
Team news to follow shortly.
Updated
