5 Tips for Thursday Night's Europa Conference League Action - 30/9/21

The first game on this list of tips sees Serie A side AS Roma travel out to Ukrainian outfit Zorya Luhansk in the Europa Conference League.

Roma defeated CSKA Sofia 5-1 on matchday one in Group C of the competition, as a brace from Lorenzo Pellegrini, as well as goals from Stephan El Shaarawy, Gianluca Mancini and Tammy Abraham, sealed an emphatic win, despite initially falling behind to a strike from former Plymouth Argyle winger Graham Carey after just 10 minutes.

Zorya Luhansk were beaten 3-1 away at Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt in their first game, although Jose Mourinho does have a history of managing against them, as in the 2016/17 season when managing Manchester United on their way to winning the Europa League on 2017, his side beat Zorya 1-0 at Old Trafford and 2-0 in Ukraine, where current Roma midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan scored the opening goal of the match in the 48th minute.

In Serie A, Roma have scored 14 goals in six matches, although the Portuguese manager could field a slightly rotated side in this match against Zorya, as this is a secondary competition, meaning that Roma are priced at 13/8 to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1 on Thursday.

Tottenham Hotspur will be looking to bounce back from their humiliating 3-1 loss to Arsenal on the weekend when they take on NS Mura at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Thursday night.

Nuno Espirito Santo has come under pressure following three defeats in his last three matches as Spurs manager in the Premier League, where they have shipped nine goals to the likes of Crystal Palace, Chelsea and Arsenal, so he will be looking for a positive reaction from the Lilywhites, who face NS Mura on matchday two in Group G of the Europa Conference League.

Last time out in this competition, Spurs drew 2-2 away at Rennes when playing a relatively strong squad, with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg’s 78th-minute goal rescuing them a point, having fallen behind in the game just five minutes earlier through a goal by Gaetan Laborde.

Meanwhile, NS Mura were soundly beaten 2-0 at home to Vitesse, and with the strength in depth that Spurs have in their squad, as well as the fact that Vitesse had 26 efforts on goal away from home, winning the match with a -3 goal handicap certainly shouldn’t be too much to ask.

German Bundesliga outfit Union Berlin hosts Maccabi Haifa at Stadion An der Alten Forstereie on matchday two in Group E of the Europa Conference League.

Union actually suffered a 3-1 defeat against Slavia Prague in their opening match, as they went down to 10 men in the 39th minute following a red card for Paul Jaeckel when they were already 1-0 down, although they did equalise in the 70th minute through Kevin Behrens before conceding two late goals to Jan Kuchta and Ivan Schranz; whilst Maccabi Haifa earned a point with a resolute defensive display at home to Feyenoord.

At present, Union are eighth in the Bundesliga standings, having earned nine points from six games, scoring eight and conceding the same amount, defeating Arminia Bielefeld 1-0 at the weekend, showing that they are not a particularly free-scoring side, but do have enough capability to beat Maccabi.

In Group F, Danish Superliga outfit FC Copenhagen take on Lincoln Red Imps at the Parken Stadium, in a game that the hosts will expect to win comfortably against the Gibraltar-based minnows.

In their last match in the Europa Conference League, Copenhagen beat Slovan Bratislava 3-1 as Denmark star Jonas Wind scored a brace, whilst Jens Stage also got on the scoresheet, whilst Lincoln Red Imps were beaten 2-0 by Greek side PAOK Salonika at home, with Chuba Akpom and Alexandru Mitrita scoring for the visitors.

Copenhagen have scored 24 goals in 10 league matches, as they sit second in their domestic league with 23 points and will be expected to better the goal tally they managed against Bratislava when they face Lincoln Red Imps on Thursday.

AZ Alkmaar take on Czech First league outfit Jablonec at AFAS Stadium on Thursday in a game that the hosts will be desperate to win having endured a tough start to the season.

AZ drew 2-2 with Danish Superliga side Randers on matchday one in Group D despite taking the lead twice, through former Southampton midfielder Jordy Clasie and Vangelis Pavlidis and currently sit 12th in the Eredivisie after six matches, although they did earn a confidence-boosting victory last time out, as they thumped Go Ahead Eagles last weekend, with Jesper Karlsson (2), Dani de Wit, Zakaria Aboukhlal and Tijani Reijnders all getting on the scoreboard.

Jablonec beat Romanian side Cluj 1-0 at home thanks to a penalty from former Wolfsberg winger Vaclav Pilar in the 52nd minute and showed that they do have the capability to score goals against bigger sides than themselves, as they did in their 4-2 Europa League third qualifying home loss to Celtic.