It isn’t just the Europa League that takes place on Thursday night nowadays.

UEFA’s newest competition, the Europa Conference League, is also at the quarterfinal first leg stage and this is our preview of all these matches.

This new tournament features teams that didn’t manage to qualify for the Champions or Europa League, or who dropped down from the Europa League and as such, there are still some decent quality teams in this tournament.

We’ll take a closer look at each of the teams competing in the matches this week, as well as giving you our top tips for each of the games.

For each of the bets mentioned in this article, we have used the odds available from bet365 Sport at the time of writing but it is worth checking the site if you plan a bet to see if the odds have altered in the time since publication.

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So why not check out the quarterfinal ties coming up in the Conference League this week below!

Europa Conference League Quarter Finals 1^st Leg

Thursday 13^th April

Gent v West Ham (5.45)

Belgian side Gent are one of the form teams in the Jupiler league, winning four of their last five and drawing the other against second place Union St. Gilloise, who are in the Europa League quarter finals on the same night.

They face a West Ham side that earned a massive 1-0 win away to Fulham at the weekend which not only likely saved David Moyes job, for the time being at least, but also means that they moved out of the relegation zone.

The English side are the favourites to win the Europa Conference League this season despite their Premier League struggles but this should be a real test for them against a team in good form and who have some dangerous players.

But, West Ham have won all eight games in the ECL this season, more than they have managed in the Premier League and I think that they will probably just about edge this one too.

Top Tip – West Ham to win – 11/10 at bet365.

Anderlecht v AZ Alkmaar

Anderlecht were once the dominant force in Belgian football and one of Europe’s top sides in the mid to late 1970s, winning three European trophies and being beaten finalists in seven others. However, nowadays they have fallen on tougher times and lie a surprising 9^th in the Belgian League table.

AZ Alkmaar lie fourth in the Dutch League but have lost two of their last three, drawing the other to see them drop off the pace being set by the top three of Feyenoord, Ajax and PSV. They reached the final of this competition in 1981, where they narrowly lost a high-scoring final against Bobby Robson’s Ipswich Town.

Both sides came through tough Round of 16 ties, with Anderlecht beating Villarreal 2-1 on aggregate thanks to a 1-0 win in Spain in the 2^nd leg, while AZ won both legs against Serie A second place side Lazio 2-1, for a 4-2 aggregate win, so both teams will respect each other here.

That said, neither side are particularly strong defensively and I think that we are likely to see a tight and cagey first leg here with neither side perhaps having an advantage when we head to the second leg in Holland next week.

Top Tip – Draw – 11/5

FC Basel v Nice

Neither of these sides have reached a European final before, so this is a great opportunity to get through to the semifinal for both teams. FC Basel lie 4^th in the Swiss League, well off the pace being set by Young Boys at the top of the table.

Nice had been on a long unbeaten run since the 7^th January ahead of the weekend game with PSG, where they suffered their first defeat since in a 2-0 home loss to the team sitting six points clear at the top of Ligue 1.

The French side have a number of familiar faces in their squad in Kaspar Schmeichel, Aaron Ramsey, Ross Barkley and Nicolas Pepe and in terms of quality, they have much the better squad, but they are without a win in five games and Basel can prove tricky opponents, especially at home.

I expect this to be a tight affair in the first leg before Nice take control in their home leg in France next week, and it would not surprise me if there are not too many goals in this game.

Top Tip – Draw – 9/4

Lech Poznan v Fiorentina

Lech Poznan, currently lying third in the Polish league, face their biggest game in their history and a chance to qualify for their very first European competition semi final. Standing in their way is 9^th placed Serie A side Fiorentina, who come into this game on the back of four wins and a draw in their last five games.

Poznan have shown real spirit to get this far, coming back from 1-0 down in the Playoff first leg to Tranzonspor to win the second 2-0 and then after two 2-2 draws with Slovan Bratislava, the edged through to the quarterfinals on penalties.

Fiorentina qualified top of their group so had a bye into the Round of 16 and there they were big winners of Sheriff Tiraspol winning 1-0 and 3-1 in both legs to secure a very easy path into the quarterfinals.

The Italian side should have too much class over the two legs to land the win here, but I think Poznan will make it tough for them in this first leg in particular, even though I still feel Fiorentina will do enough to land the win in Poland.

Top Tip – Fiorentina to win and both teams to score – no – 7/4 with bet365.

It is going to be a very interesting week of action in the European competitions this week and lets hope that some of our tips at th every least, turn out to be winners for you!

*denotes the team won the game on penalties.

*Kick off times are 8pm unless otherwise stated. All odds shown were correct with bet365 Sport at the time of writing, but may have changed since the article was published.

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