Mixed luck for Villarreal and Granada in the Europa League quarter-final draw. The Grenadians will face the great favorite to lift the title, Manchester United, while the yellow team will face Dinamo Zagreb, who reached the quarterfinals after eliminating Mourinho's Tottenham last Thursday. The other crosses face Arsenal with Slavia Prague and Ajax with Roma, the star tie of these quarterfinals of the Europa League. In case of advancing to the next round, the Spanish teams would not face each other so they could only see their faces in a hypothetical final.
Without a doubt, Granada will dance with the ugliest. United are second in the Premier League and have international stars such as Bruno Fernandes, Pogba, Cavani and Rashford, to name a few. Solskjaer's team also arrives with morale through the roof after beating Milan in the round of 16, which was another favorite to win the Europa League. For their part, Dinamo Zagreb is a smaller team than Villarreal, but they have shown in recent years that they compete extremely well. He has played in the Champions League in recent seasons and last Thursday he achieved the feat of overcoming Tottenham de Mourinho from a tie that lost 2-0 in the first leg, being the first team to beat a Portuguese coach in this competition.
In addition, Granada has not been lucky either in case it achieves the great drive of eliminating United. If he reaches the semifinals he will face the winner of Ajax-Roma, the star crossing of these rooms. The ajaccied are not the same team that eliminated Madrid from the Champions League two seasons ago but they maintain the essence of Ten Hag football and a Tadic who continues to score goals. For its part, Roma have reached this point in the competition thanks to a great Borja Mayoral, which is the tournament's top scorer with seven goals in nine games. Villarreal would face the winner of Arsenal-Slavia Prague in the semifinals.
Calendar
The first leg of the quarterfinals will be played on April 8, the first leg, and 15 of the same, the return. For its part, the semifinals are scheduled for April 29, while the rounds will be played on May 6. The grand final will be held in Gdansk (Poland) on May 26.
The quarterfinal pairings (and semi-final crossovers) are:
Granada-United and Ajax-Roma
Arsenal-Slavia Prague and Dinamo Zagreb-Villarreal