Will English teams be glad that they are out of the Europa League?

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers may rue the Reds Europa League exit on Thursday night against Besiktas

Then there was one, one English team left in the Europa League last 16 that is.

Everton are the sole remaining English club in the competition after both Tottenham and Liverpool exited the competition last night at the round of 32.

Defeated

Liverpool headed to Besiktas with a narrow 1-0 lead from the first leg at Anfield and it was never going to be easy to keep hold of that lead against Slaven Bilic’s team, who had already impressed against English sides Arsenal and Tottenham in European competition this season.

Despite fielding a strong team, short of rested midfielders Jordan Henderson and Philippe Coutinho, the Reds suffered a 1-0 defeat in normal time, and then proceeded to lose 5-4 in a penalty shoot-out after a goalless extra-time period.

Tottenham travelled to Italian club Fiorentina having drawn 1-1 with the Serie A club at White Hart Lane. Second half goals from Mario Gomez and Chelsea loanee Mohamed Salah were enough to give the Viola passage to the last-16 of the competition.

Through

Unlike their compatriots Everton seem to be taking the Europa League in their stride, as the Toffees defeated Young Boys 3-1 in the second leg of their tie at Goodison Park to win 7-2 on aggregate.

Roberto Martinez’s teams form in Europe has been incredible considering the way that they are struggling for wins in the Premier League. It feels like there are two different teams. Europa League Everton who look like the Everton of last season and Premier League Everton who look like a team that should be fighting relegation.

Martinez’s side are just six points above the drop zone with 12 league games to go this season. They should have enough quality to survive and could go on a decent run in the Europa League.

If record signing Romelu Lukaku can hit his European form in the Premier League (he now has five goals in his last two games) the Toffees should have no worries about staying up. They are currently odds of 12/1 to win the competition.

Mixed Feelings

Surely everybody connected with Tottenham and Liverpool will have mixed feelings about their exit last night. Both seem to have other priorities, as both are challenging for a top four spot, but surely a piece of silverware would have been nice for both sides.

Spurs have a chance of claiming silverware on Sunday when they face Chelsea in the Capital One Cup final, but not only does the Europa League offer a trophy, it also offers entry into the group stages of the Champions League for next season.

This was brought in by UEFA to give teams more incentive to take the competition seriously and not field weakened teams. It obviously has not been taken seriously by every team in the competition.

Liverpool boss Brendan Rodgers has decided to basically roll out the ‘we can now concentrate on the league’ mantra, which must be one of the most used phrases in football, especially by managers. It is the sort of thing that supporters say to hide the disappointment of a cup exit.

Serious

The incentive of a Champions League place for the Europa League winner was obviously not enough to entice either Liverpool or Tottenham to field their strongest line-ups in the Europa League.

UEFA have tried their best to hype-up the competition, but at the end of the day most big teams see the Champions League as the be all and end all of club football. The money involved in Europe’s elite competition unfortunately overshadows the money involved in the Europa League.

However, if the both Tottenham and Liverpool fail to finish in the top four, which is not impossible, both may be rue the fact that they did not go all out and attempt to win the competition.

Will English teams be glad that they are out of the Europa League?