Europa League Round of 32 ties make their mark with exciting start

With four arguably stale and largely predictable first leg ties in the books in the UEFA Champions League, continental focus shifted to the Europa League on Thursday. What the day threw up in terms of 16 different Round of 32 ties, was great goals, excitement and unpredictable scorelines.

Celtic’s late draw with Inter Milan in Glasgow grabbed many of the headlines but several of the other matches were every bit as exciting and dramatic. The depth of competition in Europa League at this stage seems far more balanced than the Champions League.

This continues a pattern over the last few seasons in UEFA competition where the Champions League doesn’t really capture the imagination of neutral fans until the last eight of the competition. By contrast, the Europa League has thrown up some genuine surprises at the group stage and continues that excitement right through the competition.

The era of Financial Fair Play (FFP) has sorted out haves and have nots in European football. Very few clubs can actually compete for a Champions League title –  the days of the likes of Porto, AS Monaco or Bayer Leverkusen reaching a Champions League final are behind us. Even the recent successes of Borussia Dortmund and Atletico Madrid cannot hide the reality of the staleness of most Champions League fixtures.

The Europa League’s standing as a second-tier competition often rendered it meaningless in the eyes of big club fans and many neutrals. However, this year the winner of the competition qualifies directly for next year’s Champions League and thus the seriousness of the matches seems to have improved.

Clubs that are struggling in their domestic leagues and seek a ticket to Champions League are likely to focus intensely on the Europa League – we are already seeing this phenomena play out with Roberto Martinez’s Everton who have, it can be argued are more engrossed in this competition than in the Premier League. At some early stage of the season, it seems the Toffees made a determination that the quickest and most practical route to the Champions League would be to win the Europa League.

The changes UEFA has made through the years have spiced up a once languid competition. While the Europa League may not grab the fancy of headline writers around the globe, the football has now for several years been more competitive than its more glamorous sister competition and the reward now is a ticket right into the Champions League.

In future seasons, it will be very interesting to monitor whether an evolution of attitudes towards the Europa League takes place among fans and journalists. Certainly the competition will never be as fashionable as the Champions League, but perhaps its niche will be respected and celebrated for years to come.