Matchday 4 of the Uefa Europa League takes place on Thursday and our focus is on Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv and Sturm Graz v Notts Forest
Sturm Graz v Notts Forest
Sturm Graz have 1 win and 2 defeats to show for their Europa League efforts so far. They lost their opening game 2-0 at Midtjylland before their only home fixture so far delivered a 2-1 win over Glasgow Rangers. They led Celtic 1-0 at half time in Glasgow on Matchday 3 but went on to lose the game 2-1.
Graz are fourth in the Austrian top flight with a record of 7 wins and 4 defeats but their home form is poor, just the 1 win alongside 3 defeats.
Forest kick started their European League campaign with a 2-0 home win over Porto on Matchday 3 with penalties in each half converted by Gibbs White and Igor Jesus. That was Sean Dyche’s first game in charge and earlier Forest drew 2-2 away to Betis on Matchday 1 before fluffing their lines at home in a 3-2 defeat to Midtjylland.
In 2 EPL matches under Dyche Forest have lost 2-0 at Bournemouth and drawn 2-2 at home to Man United. They are second bottom with just 6 points from 10 matches and a have a crunch home game against Leeds coming up at the weekend.
The Verdict
I’m a touch worried Forest might have 1 eye on the Leeds game but I expect them to get the job done here, leading at half time and full time.
Bets: HT/FT Forest/Forest at 1.35/1 with Pokerbet
Aston Villa v Maccabi Tel Aviv
Villa let favourite backers down on Matchday 3 when they went down 2-1 away to Go Ahead Eagles to remain on 6 points. John McGinn was the scorer in their 1-0 home win over Bologna on Matchday 1 and he was on target again in their 2-0 win away to Feyenoord a round later.
Villa lost 2-0 to Liverpool at Anfield in the EPL at the weekend but they had reeled off 4 straight wins prior to that and they are now in mid table with 15 points.
Maccabi came through qualifying with a 3-2 aggregate win over Dynamo Kyiv bt they have picked up just the 1 point from their first 3 League Phase matches. A draw away to PAOK was a decent enough start but they have since suffered back to back home defeats to Zagreb (3-1) and then Midtjylland (3-0)
The Verdict
As long as they field something like their strongest line up I can see Villa winning comfortably. After the jolt away to GA Eagles they might well do just that and I’ll side with Villa to score 3 or more goals.
Bets: Villa total goals, over 2.5 at 19/20 with Pokerbet
Note prices quoted are subject to change