MIDTJYLLAND v REAL SOCIEDAD
Whereas Actual Sociedad have dipped a contact in latest weeks, successful two of their final seven in La Liga, they need to be favourites to progress past a Midtjylland (twentieth) facet who solely got here again from their winter break in late January to conclude the league section. La Actual struggled to start with on this competitors, however took 9 factors from their final 4 outings to complete strongly, in thirteenth, whereas Valdemar Byskov’s late equaliser towards Fenerbahce on matchday eight helped the Danes keep away from early elimination.
The scorer of Euro 2024’s successful purpose, Mikel Oyarzabal, is the undoubted star man for the Basque membership, whereas Takefusa Kubo is extremely rated. Nonetheless Imanol Aguacil’s facet have discovered scoring tough this time period and will must depend on their defence, behind midfield metronome Martin Zubimendi, to progress.
Midtjylland are Danish champions and Thomas Thomasberg’s squad combines youthful vigour from throughout the globe with skilled former Premier League operators in captain Mads Bech Sorensen – as soon as of Brentford – and former Newcastle and Fulham full-back Kevin Mbabu. Midfielder Byskov is a participant to look out for, as are attacker Franculino Dju and goalscoring defender Ousmane Diao. The opening leg is on the MCH Enviornment in Denmark.
First leg: 13 February (17:45 GMT)
Second leg: 20 February (20:00 GMT)
