Europa League: RB Leipzig vs. Atalanta Preview, Odds, Prediction

Europa League quarterfinals bring a lot of action, and according to some fans, the game between RB Leipzig and Atalanta will be the most interesting one. Both units want to win the trophy and believe that they are better than their counterparts. The Bulls had a better intro for this event, winning in Dortmund against Borussia, while on the other side, Atalanta lost at home to Napoli. But that doesn’t have to be a relevant indicator for anything. We often saw the Italians bouncing back following a tough loss, and on the other side, RB had slips that nobody expected.

Preview

RB Leipzig (-125) has only one defeat in the last 13 games and that was back in early February against Bayern in Munich. Ever since, the Bulls have been playing superbly, posting seven victories and three draws, dramatically improving the form.

They didn’t play the Europa League round of 16 against Spartak Moscow, but won via walkover. They beat Borussia in Dortmund this weekend, 1-4, showing clinical execution upfront, and fantastic transition during counter-attacks.

The problem for this unit is the fact that they don’t use the home-court advantage, especially in the last few weeks, as they had three draws in a row. Prior to that, RB posted four victories.

Atalanta (+300) had solid results up un until this weekend. That is when La Dea lost at home to Napoli, 1-3, snapping a long streak of games without a defeat at home. This defeat pretty much eliminated them from the title race for good.

Before that game, Atalanta had three wins and a draw, not allowing a single goal in three consecutive events. They usually win games because of an excellent offense, but this time, the results came due to a strong and tough defense.

Concerning the road games, La Dea completely changed its style of play, and they usually await the rival’s mistake, not dictating the tempo of play, Five of the last six games were with under 2.5 goals, and all six were with only one side netting. It seems that Duvan Zapata’s absence has had a massive impact on this team and Gasperini’s philosophy of play.

Latest News

Haidara has a knee issue, while Poulsen picked up a muscle injury. These two guys are the only ones who won’t play for the Bulls on Thursday.

Atalanta can’t count on Cabezas and Toloi, while Demiral and Ilicic stand as questionable. Having one of these two guys would be a big plus for the guests.

Head to Head Games

We haven’t seen these two sides playing against one another in the past.

Prediction

We think that this game has the potential to be very dull. As seen in the past, RB struggles to score goals at home because they aren’t very creative when having the ball in their feet and in situations when the rivals defend. On the other side, Atalanta will do exactly this, so we expect to see low efficiency – under 2.5 goals. This is one of the rare times when we make such a pick with RB or Atalanta involved.

Pick: Under 2.5 goals +125