Manchester United and Leverkusen have big ambitions when the The Europa League resumes this week with the completion of the last 16 before a mini tournament finale in Germany.
Two of the eight ties Thursday (AEST) and Friday, Inter Milan v Getafe and Sevilla v Roma, are played in a single-leg format because the pandemic wiped out their scheduled first meeting.
The Spanish-Italian dates are played in western Germany where the tournament will also conclude August 10-21 with a single-leg knock-out format culminating in the Cologne final.
Playing at home from the quarter-finals onwards is added motivation for the three Bundesliga clubs left in the tournament, but Eintracht Frankfurt need to overturn a 3-0 deficit at Swiss side Basel and Woilfsburg go to Ukraine 2-1 behind against ex-champions Shakhtar Dontesk.
Only Leverkusen, whose home stadium is one of the venues, look well-placed, leading Rangers 3-1 from their win in Scotland some five months ago.
The 2017 champions United should be effectively through taking a 5-0 cushion into their Old Trafford date with Austria's LASK; Woverhampton Wanderes and Olympiakos are level at 1-1; and Turkish champions Basaksehir take a slender 1-0 lead to Copenhapen.
United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is expected to rotate his squad, but after a top-four finish in the Premier League they now set the sights on another Europa League top spot.
"Now our focus is on the Europa League because this is a really good trophy and we want to win," influential January signing Bruno Fernandes told MUTV.
"I came to Manchester to win trophies. We need to play every game to win. If we go into the Europa League and win every game, we know we'll win the trophy."
Leverkusen have also won the event in the past, in 1988 under the name UEFA Cup, and they finally want a first trophy of any kind since the 1993 German Cup - with nine runner-up spots in various events since then.
Star player Kai Havertz is the target of transfer speculation but the cup finalists from last month have already insisted he won't be going anywhere as long as they are in the competition.
Winning the trophy is also their only chance to play in the next Champions League after being pipped for fourth in the Bundesliga by Borussia Moenchengladbach.
Australian Associated Press
