5 Europa Conference League Tips - 8/9/22

West Ham start their Conference League campaign at home to Romanian side FCSB at 8 pm on Thursday, and the competition is a welcome break for the Hammers from what has been an abysmal start to the new Premier League season.

They have just one win to their name so far, with four defeats and a draw coming in their other five games. But they performed well last time out against Chelsea, with only a controversial VAR decision preventing them from leaving Stamford Bridge with a point.

But, this match will present the opportunity of finally picking up a win after a dismal run of games recently, especially because of who the opposition are. The Romanian side sits 13th in the 16-team Romanian First Division, with seven points from seven games. And because of their form coming into this fixture, coupled with the superiority of West Ham's squad with big-money signings such as Gianluca Scamacca, Lucas Paqueta and Cornet all likely to start, we can see the Hammers winning this one.

2020-21 Europa League winners Villarreal host Polish side Lech Poznan in an earlier kick-off, and this clash is one between two sides who are in good form coming into this, which makes it that much more interesting.

The visitors have won two of their last three Polish Ekstraklasa matches and sit eighth in their league, and in all competitions, they have won four out of their last six. The Yellow Submarine have also made a great start domestically, with three wins and a draw from four games having them currently sat in third place in La Liga.

We are predicting Unai Emery's side to win 2-0 and keep a clean sheet here for two reasons - they have won four out of their last five matches in all competitions by at least two goals, and they are currently the only side in Europe's top five leagues yet to have conceded a goal this season.

Another of Thursday's early kick-offs sees French side Nice take on German side Cologne, and although both these sides come into this match with two wins out of their last six in all competitions, they have both made different starts to the new season.

The German side are sixth in the Bundesliga after two wins and three draws, being one of three sides alongside Bayern and Union Berlin who are still yet to lose this season. In contrast, the hosts sit just outside the relegation zone in Ligue 1, with just one win in the league to their name.

But, despite their poor form, Nice had a strong transfer window by bringing in the likes of Aaron Ramsey, Nicolas Pepe and Gaetan Laborde. It will take a while for these players to gel in their new side, but when they do then we can expect to see an upturn in Nice's form.

Key Cologne players such as Mark Uth, Florian Dietz, and Julian Chabot will be missing for this one due to injury, but Cologne do still have quality players in their squad and so will pose a challenge for Nice. But overall, we think that Nice are too strong for Cologne and will win, but it will be a tough challenge for them.

Italian side Fiorentina host minnows Rigas Futbola Skola at the Stadio Artemio Franchi in another of Thursday's early kick-offs. The hosts are nailed-on favourites to win this match against relatively weak opponents who are not experienced in Europe.

Fiorentina does come into this clash on a poor run of form, however, with just one win in their last six in all competitions - and they sit 11th in Serie A, with a record of one win, one draw and three defeats so far. The visitors, who won their domestic league for the first time last season, currently sit third and look set to miss out on the title this season with just three games of their season remaining.

The Latvian side will be looking to give a good account of themselves in this competition with their domestic season coming to a close, and their top scorer Andrej Ilic will be the man they turn to. But in Fiorentina, they face a tough opponent who possesses players like Luka Jovic and Jonathan Ikone - so we see only a Fiorentina win here.

Our final tip sees Turkish side Sivasspor take on Czech outfit Slavia Prague in Group G, with the clash seeing two sides of contrasting fortunes take each other on.

Sivasspor are currently 15th in the Süper Lig, having picked up three draws, two losses and no wins so far. Their opponents on Thursday are currently top of their league, having won five of their seven matches.

Slavia have performed impressively in Europe over recent years, having made the quarter-finals of the Europa League in 2018/19 and also in 2020/21. They also made the quarter-finals of this competition last season, but were knocked out by eventual runners-up Feyenoord.

Sivasspor are less experienced, with their appearance in this season's group stage being their first in this competition - they have previously only made the group stage of the Europa League, which came in 2020/21. With Slavia’s start to the season plus the fact that they are a better side than Sivasspor, we are predicting a win for them in this match.