West Ham United will look back to the club's halcyon days for inspiration as it hosts Lyon in the first leg of its Europa League quarterfinal on Thursday.

It has not seen a European quarterfinal in the east end of London since 1981, when second-division West Ham lost to eventual winners Dinamo Tbilisi in the last eight of the Cup Winners Cup.

Its best years came before that, with Bobby Moore captaining the team to victory in the 1965 Cup Winners Cup and a side featuring Frank Lampard senior reaching the final of the same tournament in 1976.

On that occasion, it lost to a brilliant Anderlecht team, but returning to another European final is now the dream, almost half a century later.

After ousting record six-time winner Sevilla in the last round, a meeting with Lyon will hold no fears for David Moyes's men, who are sixth in the Premier League.

"It's very exciting. I've been here a long time and seen the lows of relegation battles to being in the quarterfinal of the Europa League," Aaron Cresswell told the club's website.

"That's what we want as a club, we want progression and as players, we want to play in those competitions against the best players in the world. It's fantastic."

Lyon has a fantastic recent pedigree in Europe, reaching the Champions League semifinals in 2020 and the last four of the Europa League in 2017.

It knocked out Porto in the last round, but it is hard to know what the true face of Peter Bosz's side is just now – it lies in mid-table in Ligue 1.

Lyon is missing gifted midfielder Maxence Caqueret due to injury but anything is possible for the French side if the likes of Lucas Paqueta and Houssem Aouar perform to the best of their ability.

Resurgent Barcelona

Whoever wins that tie – the second leg will be played next week – will face Eintracht Frankfurt or a resurgent Barcelona in the semifinals.

The Catalans must now be seen as the favorites to win the Europa League as they head to Germany on an unbeaten run of 13 games.

Opponents Eintracht sits mid-table in the Bundesliga but it has beaten Bayern Munich this season and knocked out another Spanish side in the last round, ending the prospects of Betis reaching the final in Seville.

Germany is the only country with two teams left in the Europa League, as RB Leipzig hosts Atalanta in the first leg.

Leipzig's form since Domenico Tedesco became coach in December has been superb and it comes into this tie fresh from thumping Borussia Dortmund 4-1 at the weekend.

In contrast, Atalanta has slipped out of the top-four race in Serie A.

Rangers head to Portugal to play Braga looking to bounce back after their home loss to Celtic on Sunday that dealt a potentially fatal blow to their Scottish title hopes.

They knocked Braga out of the Europa League two years ago but Carlos Carvalhal's team beat Monaco in the last round and is fresh from a 3-2 win over Benfica last weekend.

The clash between Leicester City and PSV Eindhoven is the pick of the ties in the quarterfinals of the Europa Conference League.

The Foxes want more silverware after winning last season's FA Cup but PSV is eyeing a first continental title since lifting the European Cup in 1988.

"Leicester will be the most formidable team we have played this season," said PSV coach Roger Schmidt.

PSV's fellow former European Cup winners, Feyenoord and Marseille, host Slavia Prague and PAOK, while Roma returns to Norway to renew acquaintances with Bodo/Glimt.

Jose Mourinho's side lost 6-1 away to the same opponents in the group stages.