The Italian fairies travel to Russia in the Europa League

palermo-pink-kitIf you look at the continental football competitions on offer in Europe you’d be forgiven for thinking they’re rather predictable right now. This midweek taught us that more often than not the best teams will qualify, Cristiano Ronaldo will still cheat to his heart’s content, and ‘arry Redknapp will continue to act out his role as football’s worst loser/best winner. Tonight sees this week’s serving of the continent’s Mickey Mouse tournament – the Europa League. This year’s got its fair share of heavyweight teams competing though.

Most people turn off their hearing aids when chatting to a Liverpool fan about football due to their propensity to mention they won the European Cup five times. Nowadays they bring their best game to this competition though. Anfield tonight welcomes Napoli who probably thinks they have a chance. Against a storied club like the Reds? I don’t bloody think so!

Britain’s other representative is the big spending Man City who visit a town and club that their owner’s son could buy with his daily allowance. Poland’s Lech Poznan aren’t the best of sides but a cold night in the dark Eastern depths of Europe may present problems.

Elsewhere Moscow will be playing host to the team that play in pink shirts, Palermo. Rumour has it the players may go all out and wear fairy wings in an effort to stay warm in the Russian cold. Why they don’t just wear fur coats and a pair of tights as well we’ll never know.