5 Tips for Thursday’s Europa League & Europa Conference Action - 16/9/21

Bayer Leverkusen are arguably favourites to win Group G ahead of Celtic, Real Betis and their matchday one opponents Ferencvarosi.

The Bundesliga outfit have started their league campaign in fine goalscoring form under former Young Boys manager Gerardo Seoane, scoring 12 from their opening four matches, coming away with seven points following a 1-1 draw with Union Berlin on the opening day, before hammering both Borussia Monchengladbach and FC Augsburg 4-0 and 4-1, with their only loss coming in a 4-3 defeat to Borussia Dortmund last time out.

A player to look out for in this match is Czech Republic striker Patrick Shick, who was one of the best players at Euro 2020, having managed five goals in five appearances. The 25-year-old Prague born striker has taken his form from the summer’s championship into his league form, managing three goals in four matches, scoring in his last three games, which sees Schick priced at 13/5 to score first against the Hungarian champions, Ferencvarosi.

AS Monaco face Austrian Bundesliga outfit Sturm Graz at the Stade Louis II of which the French side are expected to come out with all three points despite their poor start to the season, as they have a more reputable squad of players.

Niko Kovac’s side are currently 16th place in Ligue 1 after five games with just four points to their name, although they did pick up their first win of the season before the international break via a 2-1 victory over ESTAC Troyes at home, thanks to a brace from Sofiane Diop.

What will definitely give Monaco hope is the fact that Graz themselves have already dropped seven points in seven matches in their domestic league and currently sit seven behind Red Bull Salzburg in second place. Christian Ilzer’s side have conceded 10 times in seven matches, meaning that their defence is far from solid.

Jose Mourinho will be hoping that his AS Roma side can continue their 100% start under his management when they host Bulgarian side CSKA Sofia at the Stadio Olimpico in the Europa Conference League.

Roma come into this match as firm favourites as they sit at the top of the Serie A table after three matches having beaten Fiorentina 3-1, Salernitana 4-0 and Sassuolo 2-1 with Stephan El Shaaraway scoring a 91st minute in the latter in what was Mourinho’s 1000th game as a manager.

The Italian side had to beat Trabzonspor 5-1 on aggregate to qualify for the competition, whilst CSKA’s third-place finish in the efbet League meant that they had to defeat Viktoria Plzen 3-2 on aggregate in the playoffs to qualify for the competition.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan has shown good form so far this season, scoring one and assisting one in two matches in Serie A and will be one of the Serie A side’s most dangerous attacking threats and has bundles of European experience with the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk, Borussia Dortmund, Manchester United and Arsenal. The Armenian managed 13 goals in Serie A last season and is priced at 7/5 to score in a Roma win.

On Thursday night, Eintracht Frankfurt take on Fenerbahce in matchday one of Group D, which also consists of Olympiakos and Royal Antwerp.

Eintracht come into this competition having finished in fifth place in the Bundesliga last season, but, have started this season slowly with three points from four matches, drawing their last three 0-0 with Augsburg, 1-1 away at Armenia Bielefeld and 1-1 at home to VfB Stuttgart where the visitors scored an 88th-minute equaliser through Omar Marmoush, cancelling out Filip Kostic’s opener in a game that the hosts dominated.

Fenerbahce have won three of their first four matches in the Turkish Super Lig, but aren’t big goalscorers, managing six in four games, having beaten Adana Demirspor 1-0, Antalyaspor 2-0, Altay 2-0, before drawing 1-1 against Sivasspor 1-1 at the weekend, where Bright Osayi-Samuel’s opener was cancelled out by a Pedro Henrique Konzen penalty on the stroke of half-time.

Frankfurt have good memories in this competition and have some survivors from their penalty shootout defeat to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the semi-finals back in 2019 with the likes of Kevin Trapp, Martin Hinteregger, Danny da Costa and Kostic all still playing for the club.

In Group G’s other fixture, Real Betis host Celtic at the Benito Villamarín Stadium with the hosts coming in as slight favourites having finished in sixth place in La Liga last season.

Betis who are managed by former Premier League winning manager Manuel Pellegrini, formerly of Manchester City and West Ham started the season slowly with two 1-1 draws against Mallorca and Cadiz, before losing 1-0 to Real Madrid, however, they did pick up their first league win of the season on Monday night in a 2-1 victory away at Granada thanks to an 89th-minute strike from Sergio Canales.

Celtic are currently battling away to try and regain their Scottish Premiership crown, following last season’s humiliation which saw them finish 25 points behind Rangers, but, Celtic have done very little to enhance their chances so far this season, winning three and losing two of their opening five matches. Ange Postecoglou’s side have beaten the likes of St Mirren and Dundee 6-0, as well as Ross County 3-0 last time out, but, they have been beaten by Hearts and Rangers 2-1 and 1-0.

The Hoops goalscoring form is good, however, managing 16 in five matches which is the most goals scored in their division. The Parkhead club also showed their capabilities in the Europa League qualifiers when they beat Jablonec 7-2 on aggregate as well as AZ Alkmaar 3-2.