Europa League Tips – Thursday 16th March

Manchester United made light work of their first leg tie against Real Betis securing a comfortable home win and in truth, it could have been a few more goals in their favour. After a bright start, Betis faded terribly in the second half and United took full advantage to put the tie seemingly beyond reach.

Having earned a draw with Barcelona at the Nou Camp recently, United should not be too daunted by a trip to the Benito Villamarin, though Betis do have a good home record and they should put up a much more sterner test for United than they did in that first leg.

Even so, I can’t see anyway that the Spanish side can turn this around. Winning by four goals against United does happen from time to time, but under Erik Ten Hag, they have generally been very good and have looked very solid, especially in these away games in the Europa League, where they remain unbeaten this season.

The issue I have here is that I am not sure what score this game could be, or how United will approach it, but I am confident that the visitors will score a goal and if they do, the odds are it will be the in form Marcus Rashford that scores it, so I am going to back him to score at any time in this game.

This is my riskiest punt this week, but I hope you will hear me out. Juventus won what was a tight first leg 1-0 in Turin and they now head into the game in Germany defending that slender lead, but also knowing that their best performances in this competition this season have come away from home in this competition.

However, I think SC Freiburg could prove to be very tricky opponents, especially on their home ground where they have lost just one of 11 games at home in the Bundesliga, winning seven and drawing three. The German side have also lost just two of their last eight games.

Juventus have lost four of their 12 away games in Serie A this season and although the Italian team does possess a much stronger squad on paper, Freiburg have managed some good wins at home, including a 4-1 win against surprise Bundesliga title challengers Union Berlin.

Freiburg also beat Nantes comfortably home and away in the Group Stages of the competition and I have this sneaking feeling they may win the game, take the game to extra time and penalties and then progress with a win from the spot kicks. Hence, I have picked a rare one here and gone with the To Qualify market.

The first leg of this game was an interesting one with Arsenal being tested by a talented and in-form Sporting Lisbon side. However, despite that, the Gunners still came away from that game with a share of the spoils, which puts them at a slight advantage, especially with away goals now no longer a feature of the tournament.

Arsenal should also be able to call on Gabriel Jesus once again, although I think it is likely he will start on the bench as he continues his recovery from injury. That will give the Arsenal attack a real boost over this final third of the season.

Sporting have been in great form away from home, winning all their last five road games and they have also been scoring goals early in games, scoring in the first half of their last five matches, so there is still a real threat coming from the Portuguese side here and they will not be taken lightly by Arsenal.

I can see Lisbon scoring once here but I think Arsenal will score at least twice, if not three times and end up progressing into the quarterfinals of the Europa League. Hence the obvious bet here is to back Arsenal to win and both teams to find the net.

I was quite surprised that AS Roma earned such a comfortable 2-0 win in the first leg of this game. I had expected it to be closer, but Sociedad have been struggling to get results recently and despite topping the group with Manchester united in, the Spanish side have not been at their best in recent weeks.

Jose Mourinho’s Roma side took full advantage securing a good 2-0 home win which hands them a significant advantage here and one that I think the Spanish side are going to struggle to overcome. Partly because I think both sides are stronger on the counter rather than being the aggressor and Sociedad will have to be the aggressor as they are losing 2-0.

I can see Roma sitting back and then hitting Sociedad on the counter attack using the pace of their attacking wide players and wingers and with the likes of Tammy Abraham and Paulo Dybala at the forefront of their attack, I think the Spanish defence are going to struggle to keep both of these players from finding the net.

Lacking confidence I can see this going one of two ways, either Roma will cancel out Sociedad and the game will end 0-0, or Sociedad will score but then Roma will hit them on the counter as they go for the second to draw the tie level. Either way, I feel that the draw is the solid bet to back here.