Wolves are looking to continue their year-long Europa League campaign by reaching the semi-finals on Tuesday but face the difficult task of trying to get past Sevilla in the quarter-finals.
The mini-tournament format of the Europa League got into full swing on Monday with Manchester United and Inter Milan coming through their last-eight ties with FC Copenhagen and Bayer Leverkusen respectively.
Wolves will attempt to follow in the footsteps of Premier League rivals United on Tuesday when they face Sevilla, while Shakhtar Donetsk and Basel are also set to scrap it out in the other quarter-final.
Sevilla to Provide Serious Test
Wolves’ Europa League campaign started on July 25 last year when they beat Crusaders in the second qualifying round.
Tuesday’s encounter against Sevilla, which kicks off at 20:00 at the Schauinsland-Reisen-Arena, will be Wolves’ 59th competitive fixture of the 2019-20 campaign, and just three more victories will see them crowned Europa League champions.
Sevilla, who have won this competition three times since 2014, beat Roma 2-0 in the last-16 to set up this mouth-watering showdown, and are unsurprisingly the 6/5 favourites to win this tie.
Julen Lopetegui’s men are unbeaten since football return, helping them to finish fourth in La Liga and consequently secure a place in the Champions League, however, don’t expect them to ease off against Wolves.
With two clubs very astute on the defensive side of things, this fixture could prove to be a tense and tight affair, with no luxury of a return leg or away goals to fall back on.
Sevilla head into this clash off the back of four successive clean sheets across all competitions, while Wolves have earned shutouts in three of their last five outings.
Backing under 1.5 goals at 6/4 looks the way to go in this engagement given the pragmatism of both sides.
Moraes to Fire Shakhtar to Glory
Shakhtar Donetsk face Basel in Tuesday’s other quarter-final tie, also kicking off at 20:00, and the Ukrainian outfit, who are priced at 10/11 to win, look good for a last-four berth.
The neutral aspect of the re-shaped competition could play into Shakhtar’s hands after playing away from their base over the past few years due to the unrest in the Donbass region of Ukraine.
They have already seen off Benfica and Wolfsburg in the knockout stages of the Europa League and shouldn’t have too many issues in overcoming Basel.
Junior Moraes is likely to be the man to guide them to glory and he heads into this clash in fine form.
The Brazilian-born Ukraine international, who is priced at 13/10 to score anytime, has registered 25 times across all competitions in 2019-20, helping Shakhtar to the league title, and he notched twice last time out as they dispatched of Wolfsburg 3-0.