Freiburg and Aston Villa will contest the final of this season’s Europa League in Istanbul on Wednesday night and we take a look at a number of options available to punters
Freiburg
Freiburg booked their place in the final with a 4-3 aggregate win over Sporting Braga. They lost the first leg 2-1 away from home but when Braga were reduced to 10 men after just 6 minutes of the return in Germany Freiburg scored twice in the first half, Kulbler added his second and their third of the night and although Braga pulled one back Freiburg ran out 3-1 winners on the night.
In the quarter finals Freiburg won both legs of their clash with Celta Vigo, 3-0 at home and 3-1 away whilst in the Round of 16 they lost their first leg of their match up with Genk 1-0 away from home put came through with a 5-1 victory in the return on home turf.
In the League Phase Freiburg won 5, drew 2 and lost 1 of their matches. Scoring 10 goals and conceding 4 an they qualified automatically with a seventh placed finish. They won all 4 of their home games and their only defeat came away to Lille on Matchday 8 and they had already done enough to get through.
In the Bundesliga Freiburg finished seventh, winning 13, drawing 8 and losing 13 of their matches, scoring 51 goals and conceding 57. From their total of 47 points 32 were earned in home games.
Aston Villa
Villa lost the first leg of their semi final clash with Notts Forest 1-0 away from home but they turned things around at Villa Park with a 4-0 win on the night with John McGinn scoring twice.
Villa’s quarter final match up with Bologna turned out to be a one sided affair. They took control of the tie with a 3-1 win in the first leg away from home (Konsa and a brace from Watkins) and finished the job with a 4-0 home win (Watkins, Buendia, Rogers and Konsa). In the Round of 16 Villa won both legs of their match up with Lille, 1-0 away from home and 2-0 in the return at Villa Park.
Villa came through the League Phase with a fair degree of comfort, winning 7 and losing 1 to qualify automatically in second spot. Their only blip came on Matchday 6, a 2-1 defeat away to GA Eagles.
With one round of matches still to go in the EPL Villa are fourth and already assured of their place in the UCL next season. They had a really poor start to the domestic season with their first league goal only arriving in the fifth round of matches but they shot up the standings thereafter.
The Betting (Regulation Time):
Freiburg are 4/1 to win the match with the draw at 29/10 and Villa can be backed at around 4/6
A game of 3 goals or more in total is priced at even money and it’s a similar price for both teams to score.
Ollie Watkins is 17/4 to score the first goal and 31/20 to score any time
In the price boosts Villa are 7/10 (from 6/4 to lead at half time and full time)
To lift the trophy via any method Freiburg are 9/4 and Villa 1 / 3
The Verdict:
Freiburg are an unknown quantity to me but their record in this competition is solid enough to warrant respect. That said Villa have looked a cut above in this competition and I’m taking them to win 0-1, 0-2 or 0-3.
Bet: Multi correct score 0-1, 0-2, 0-3 at 18/10 with Sportingbet
Note odds quoted are subject to change