With the Champions League finished for another week, Thursday night action switches to the Europa League and Conference League once more, now with just two games of the Group stages to play.
In Group C, after Napoli’s loss in Moscow to Spartak on Wednesday, the standings are wide open and Leicester City are presented with the chance to bounce back at home to Legia Warsaw and leapfrog into top spot.
Without a win in five in all comps, the Foxes will be seeking revenge after their MD2 defeat to the Poles, with the opportunity to jump from 4th to 1st, as documented. Brendan Rodgers men should have little problems beating Legia in front of their own fans, at an overwhelming favourites billing of 11/50 with NoviBet, so where can value be had? Patson Daka will be licking his lips after grabbing four in MD3, and the Belgian is set to be unleashed once more in Europe, at 9/2 to score first. Another hattrick might be too much of a stretch, but a Daka brace at 11/2 is well worth some investment, both prices with Bet365.
West Ham are comfortably poised to win Group H, holding a four-point lead ahead of MD5 as David Moyes takes his charges to Austria and to Rapid Vienna. As top plays bottom in the standings, a point for the Irons will be enough to seal a top seed berth with a game to spare, providing Dinamo Zagreb fail to beat Genk at home. That should be irrelevant however, with West Ham 8/13 with MatchBook to keep their 100% record in the Group. In terms of goals, in all four of their games so far, the visitors have netted twice, and when the two sides met in London in September, West Ham recorded a 2-0 win. For the Hammers to win either 1-0 or 2-0 here, BoyleSports’ boost of 4/1 is very decent value.
Over in Germany, Celtic face a crunch tie with Bayer Leverkusen. In reality, the Bhoys need a win to remain in the Group G picture with Real Betis entertaining whipping boys Ferencvaros. Celtic may have been thumped 4-0 at home in the reverse fixture, but Ange Postecoglou’s charges wasted a hatful of chances at Celtic Park. Given the fact Leverkusen have conceded in six of their last seven outings, the Glasgow outfit look good money to at the very least score. Kyogo Furuhashi looks the biggest threat for Celtic having scored four goals in as many games since late October, and for the Japanese striker to score anytime, SkyBet, William Hill and Betfred all have 3/1 boosts on the table.
Back on Scottish soil, the other half of the Old Firm, Rangers, entertain Sparta Prague with the winners almost certain to book their spot in the knockouts. With Lyon runaway leaders in Group A, Giovanni van Bronckhorst will need to erase memories of defeat in his opening game as boss against Hibs at the weekend, having taking over from Steven Gerrard in the dugout. Prague came out on top when the two teams met earlier in the term by just a single goal, and perhaps, another tight contest in on the cards here. To reverse the scoreline, SBK are offering 8/1 for a 1-0 home win.
In the Europe Conference League meanwhile, Tottenham travel to Slovenia face NS Mura. Set to play Rennes in MD6 in what looks to be a Group G decider, first, Spurs need to pick up an expected win on the road, where of late, results have been hard to come by. Though Mura are a staggering 28/1 with UniBet and William Hill to beat Antonio Conte’s side, the hosts could frustrate the north Londoners, with a possible 9/1 draw not looking so unlikely with SkyBet. For the better value though, you can treble your money at 2/1 with QuinnBet for Both Teams to Score.
