Setting the Table: Europa League Cheat Sheet

Written by

Updated on March 9, 2016 11:25AM EST

Mondogoal has offered Europa League contests for quite some time, but the addition of the tournament by DraftKings opens the game up to a wider audience, particularly in the U.S.

One of the biggest difficulties in preparing for Europa League matches is that some of the participating teams play in leagues that don't have game stats widely available. Sure, we know the scores of the matches and the lineups, but finding detailed information about crosses, tackles, interceptions and fouls drawn from the Gambrinus League in the Czech Republic (where Sparta Prague play), Liga Sagres (Braga) and the Jupiler League (Anderlecht) can be difficult. Luckily we still have competitors from the Premier League (Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham), the Bundesliga (Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen), La Liga (Sevilla, Villarreal, Valencia, Athletic Club) and Serie A (Lazio), though some of them use backups in these matches to give their regular starters rest before domestic play picks up again this weekend.

Here's how the bookmakers see it all going down:

Home	Win Chances	Clean Sheet Chances	Away	Win Chances	Clean Sheet Chances	Draw Chances
Basel	0.28	0.23	Sevilla	0.44	0.31	0.28
Borussia Dortmund	0.60	0.41	Tottenham	0.16	0.16	0.23
Fenerbahce	0.56	0.42	Braga	0.19	0.21	0.26
Shakhtar Donestsk	0.57	0.41	Anderlecht	0.17	0.21	0.25
Athletic Club	0.56	0.42	Valencia	0.19	0.22	0.26
Liverpool	0.45	0.41	Manchester United	0.25	0.27	0.30
Sparta Prague	0.36	0.31	Lazio	0.35	0.31	0.30
Villarreal	0.45	0.38	Bayer Leverkusen	0.26	0.27	0.29

Home	Over 1.5 Goals	Under 1.5 Goals	Away	Over 1.5 Goals	Under 1.5 Goals
Basel	0.33	0.66	Sevilla	0.44	0.56
Borussia Dortmund	0.58	0.42	Tottenham	0.16	0.84
Fenerbahce	0.50	0.50	Braga	0.22	0.78
Shakhtar Donestsk	0.51	0.49	Anderlecht	0.23	0.77
Athletic Club	0.49	0.51	Valencia	0.23	0.77
Liverpool	0.39	0.61	Manchester United	0.25	0.75
Sparta Prague	0.35	0.65	Lazio	0.35	0.65
Villarreal	0.41	0.59	Bayer Leverkusen	0.28	0.72

Premier League followers may be very surprised to see Spurs, who sit second in England, as such overwhelming underdogs, and ones expected to give up multiple goals, but Borussia Dortmund have been excellent this season, as they too sit second in their domestic table. They've scored 59 goals this season, tying them with Bayern Munich for the most in Germany, and they haven't allowed multiple goals in a match since Dec. 19.

Their prolific attack is led by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, whose 22 goals sit one behind Robert Lewandowski for the league lead. However, they're far from being a one-trick pony, as Marco Reus and Henrikh Mkhitaryan have each scored nine times in league play, while Mkhitaryan's 10 assists co-lead the league. Understandably, none of the these players are cheap; in fact, Aubameyang is the most expensive player on DraftKings' slate.

Here are a few names worth paying attention to, though remember that squad rotation makes it all very fluid.

• Alex Teixeira leads Shakhtar Donetsk with 22 goals this season and looks very attractive on DraftKings with his $5,400 price. The problem: he now plays for Jiangsu Suning in China.

• Darijo Srna was a popular Champions League option earlier this season because of his crossing ability, which is still very evident for a Shakhtar side that's bagged 10 goals in their last three matches, including a 3-0 victory over Schalke in their last Europa League match.

• Nani takes corners for Fenerbahce, which has scored eight goals in their last three league matches. One warning: if you're sitting there thinking "Wow, Robin van Persie used to be really good," well, you're right. He used to be. He's also struggled this season because the club doesn't feel he's good enough to play all 90 minutes, and he's publicly complained about it, which obviously never helps the situation.

• Steven Defour is the biggest crosser for Anderlecht, though they have the second-lowest win odds.

• Ever Banega had a goal and five crosses in Sevilla's draw with Getafe this past weekend and he sent in nine crosses the match prior. The difficulty with Sevilla is that four different players have sent in at least nine crosses in the last seven matches: Mariano (12 against Las Palmas on Feb. 14), Michael Krohn-Dehli (15 against Rayo Vallecano on Feb. 21) and Yehven Konoplyanka (12 against Molde in the Europa League on Feb. 25) in addition to Banega.

• Aritz Aduriz leads Athletic Club (sometimes mistakenly referred to as "Athletic Bilbao") with 17 league goals this season, putting him only behind a few players you may have heard of: Cristiano Ronaldo (27), Luis Suarez (26), Lionel Messi (21), Karim Benzema (19) and Neymar (18). He has four goals and an assist in his last three matches, including one against Valencia in La Liga play Feb. 29, and he's found the back of the net seven times in seven Europa League appearances this season. Beñat is also a solid option, as he sends in a decent number of crosses and has one goal and one assist in his last three.

• Javier "Chicharito" Hernandez has been magnificent this season for Bayer Leverkusen, leading them with 14 Bundesliga goals while adding five more in Champions League play. Hakan Calhanoglu is also very much involved in the attack and even bagged a penalty this past weekend.

• Spurs were discussed above, and if you were hoping there may be some discounts on the Liverpool and Manchester United players, you're out of luck, though on the plus side, there aren't too many upper-tier players in the Europa slate that will make getting the top dogs (like Aubameyang) too difficult.