We now enter the second part of our European week and welcome the Europa League to our coupons. The competition sometimes matches sides of varied quality where a thrashing or two is handed out, but we are going to provide some fixtures where the goals are rife and rampant. Bring on Goals Galore!
Here is my best treble for Thursday night’s action:
Kuban v Valencia – 6.00pm Thursday –
Both teams to score odds – 8/11 Betfred
Both sides are looking to get some points on the board after poor results in their opening ties. Kuban lost in Switzerland, going down 2-0 to St Gallen and the Russian side are also struggling in the league, sitting in tenth place after eleven games. However I fancy them to get a goal on Thursday night, they rarely lose at home in Europe, and have already seen off Feyenoord and Motherwell this season and even though this will be their biggest test I am predicting Djibril Cisse to get on the score sheet.
Valencia suffered an early red card 10 minutes in verses Swansea in their first Europa game which led to a 3-0 thrashing, this was their home and they were expected to win. A victory in Russia is now vital now they’re playing catch up. The Spanish giants have won their league games since that defeat so the players will be confident of all three points in Russia and while you would expect them not to lose the game, Kuban are not a team to be simply dismissed, I expect both teams to score.
Dnipro v Fiorentina – 8.05pm Thursday
Both teams to score odds – 8/11 Betfred
Ukrainian side Dnipro are a team on the rise in recent years and goals are likely when Fiorentina visit on Thursday. Most will predict that these are the two teams that will progress from Group E and they added a little evidence to that forecast by winning their first games in the group, Dnipro won a tricky away tie in Romania beating Pandurii 1-0 while Fiorentina comfortably dealt with Pacos Ferreira winning 3-0 at home.
Dnipro are having a great season thus far, they have lost just the single match in all competitions and have scored in every fixture. The Ukrainian league may be a little behind Serie A in all round quality but its a division which is improving and includes clubs with real quality including Metalist, Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk. Dnipro will look to their 3-1 win over Shakhtar back in August as reason to believe they can win on Thursday night.
Fiorentina will be hoping for a successful run in this competition and are taking it serious enough to hand out a 3-0 battering over Portuguese outfit Pacos Ferriera in game week one. The Italians have been finding the net with ease in recent times, scoring 14 times in just 6 games and have scored at least a goal in every away game since February. I just cannot see them returning from their trip without finding the back of the net.
APOEL v Frankfurt – 8.05pm Thursday
Both teams to score odds – 5/6 Betfred
Frankfurt sit top of the group after a 3-0 victory over a poor Bordeaux side two weeks ago while APOEL earned a very important point in Israel, holding Maccabi Tel-Aviv to a 0-0 draw. A fixture many would expect the away side to come away from with victory but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me if the home side were to score here.
APOEL are not the greatest of sides and are unlikely to make it past the group stage however they get on the score sheet often enough to grab a goal on Thursday. Frankfurt will be expected to win fairly comfortably and will certainly go out looking for goals which should leave them a little open at the back.
