It's a shame that arguably two of the best teams left standing in the Europa League, Borussia Dortmund and Tottenham, were matched against each other in the Round of 16 of the competition. It's clear that BVB will be advancing after a 3-0 win at home last week, but bettors will still be interested in whether Mauricio Pochettino's side will show some spunk at White Hart Lane in the return leg.
Soccer Odds at BookMaker.eu
Tottenham +210
Borussia Dortmund +115
Draw +260
Over/Under 2.5 (over -120)
ODDS ANALYSIS
Tottenham is a 16 to 1 underdog to advance to the next stage of this competition after getting run off the field on German soil last week. There's no two ways about the fact that this is over, but the Spurs shouldn't be laying down at home over the course of this 90 minutes either. Strange things have happened in the past, and one goal could easily be the spark to go forward and get the other two necessary to make this an affair.
Still, the Yellow and Blacks are the easy favorites in this match at +115 on the road. They had the quality side in the first fixture, and they'll be ready to strike again in England to get a more emphatic victory.
THE FIRST MEETING
Basically the only question left from the first leg of this 180-minute tie is how Borussia Dortmund didn't win by more than three goals. The display was emphatic from the start, and perhaps it was one which bettors should've seen coming when Harry Kane was left on the bench.
Christian Eriksen cracked the first shot of the game on target for the Spurs. Little did they know that would be their second to last shot on target for the entire match. Tottenham only mustered a total of three shots for the affair.
Dortmund only put five on Hugo Lloris, but the French goalie had much more work to do than that. A total of 19 German shots came flying towards him, and had more of them been on target, this could've easily been a 7-0 affair. BVB had 63 percent of the possession, and a pair of Marco Reus second half goals provided the emphatic finale after Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored early on to give Dortmund the edge.
QUOTE TO NOTE
"We're in a process that is only near the beginning, and it's true that we've shown that we're ready to compete. But to compete at the next level, maybe we need more time. And when you compete with a team like Borussia Dortmund, you realize quickly we need to work hard to achieve this level." – Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino on the difference in quality between these two teams
ANALYSIS AND ODDS PREDICTION
We just can't see Tottenham really caring much about this match. The Spurs desperately wanted to get into the Champions League next year for the financial windfall from it, and they're likely to accomplish that via a Top 4 finish in the Premier League this year. Staying up in the Top 4 is what needs to be the focus; heck, even winning the league isn't that far off either.
Borussia Dortmund though, doesn't have nearly as much to worry about at home in the Bundesliga, and it can continue to press forward for more damage at White Hart Lane. There's no doubt that BVB is the favorite to win the Europa League this year, and that's going to be a huge key for a side which has had to let a number of top players go due to a lack of finances in recent years. We can't see anything but another emphatic Dortmund victory at the Lane.
Borussia Dortmund 2, Tottenham 0
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