The Europa League has reached the quarter finals, with Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool looking the teams to beat.

It’s 41 games and counting for Bayer Leverkusen and Xabi Alonso.

In what is turning into a historic season, the German club has yet to be beaten in any game in any competition and takes that undefeated streak into a home game against West Ham United.

Leverkusen are on course to clinch their first-ever Bundesliga title this weekend, with the team having built a remarkable 16-point lead. The trophy will be theirs if second-placed Bayern Munich lose to Cologne on Saturday, otherwise on Sunday if Leverkusen win at home to Werder Bremen.

Alonso’s team is also in the German Cup final, so a treble of trophies is on.

West Ham are having another impressive season after winning the Conference League last season.

Another team bidding for a treble is Liverpool, in manager Juergen Klopp’s final season in charge. The English League Cup has already been secured and the team is embroiled in a tight English Premier League title race with Arsenal and Manchester City, with only a point separating the three clubs with seven games left.

If Liverpool reach the Europa League final, it would be Klopp’s final game in charge after nearly nine years — ensuring fans of the Reds would make the short trip to Dublin in their thousands in the hope of a fairy-tale ending for the German coach.

Next up for Liverpool is Atalanta. They met in the group stage of the 2020-21 Champions League.

Lifting the Europa League would see AC Milan complete the set in continental football. Milan, seven-time winners of the European Cup or Champions League, has also won the discontinued European Cup Winners’ Cup twice, as well as the Uefa Super Cup a record five times but hav never triumphed in the Europa League, or the Uefa Cup as it was previously known.

The Rossoneri have never even reached the final — something Roma, their opponents in the quarter finals, achieved twice, losing both in 1991 and last year.

AP/PTI