Europa League Matches
Everton reached the group stage by beating Sigma 4-0 at Goodison and their opponents here AEK Athens don’t look a lot stronger than Sigma. A win for Everton looks likely and at odds of 4/7 (Bet365) they don’t look too bad a price.
It’s true Everton haven’t made the best of starts to the Premier League season, but with AEK probably coming to play for a point Everton will have lots of possession and we think they will dominate play and win quite comfortably.
We’re predicting a 3-0 win 10/1 (Skybet) and think taking Marouane Fellaini to get the first goal at 8/1 (Paddypower) could provide us with a winner.
Fulham play their first group match in Bulgaria against CSKA and although they’ve started the season well enough the 6/4 (Coral) on offer for an away win looks to be a wee bit too short for us to consider. Over the last couple of seasons Fulham’s away form hasn’t been brilliant and against opponents who are hard to beat at home we think even a draw 23/10 (Skybet) could be beyond Fulham in this match.
CSKA are currently top of the Bulgarian league with four wins out of the five matches they have played so far. They have scored 14 goals and haven’t lost a goal yet, so we wouldn’t be too optimistic about Fulham managing to find the net.
We think the best betting option here is to go for a CSKA win 9/5 (Bet365). The 2-0 correct score at 14/1 (Paddypower) could be worth a bet.
Hapoel Tel Aviv play hosts to Glasgow Celtic and this could be a tough match for the SPL team, especially given their poor away record in Europe. Hapeol are arguably the weakest team in this group, but with a partisan home crowd behind them they could surprise their group opponents at home.
Celtic won’t go to defend (because they can’t if past away European performances are anything to go by) and we can see this being a pretty open match with goals. The over 2.5 goals is 11/10 (Paddypower) and we’d recommend a bet on that. It Celtic have disappointed so often in Europe we can’t really bet on them at 6/4 (Ladbrokes) to get a win. The draw is a possibility 12/5 (Skybet) but we think the home side might just edge a close game.
We’re predicting a home win for Hapoel 15/8 (Bet365) and we’re going for a 2-1 correct score 9/1 (Ladbrokes).
In games not involving British teams we like the odds on Partizan Belgrade at 2/1 (Bet365) to beat Toulouse. The Serbs haven’t been great shakes early season, but they showed improvement in the qualifying round last time and put in a fighting performance to eliminate Zilina.
We’re predicting a home win for Partizan and think a bet on a 1-0 correct score 7/1 (Paddypower) could be the scoreline to bet on.
Valencia could prove to be value at 5/4 (Ladbrokes) to get an away win in France against Lille. The French side have only managed one win from their opening five league games and with Valencia sitting joint top of La Liga they look the team to be betting on here.
We’re predicting an away win for Valencia and think a 2-0 correct score bet at odds of 8/1 (Coral) can bring a return on your stake.