Hannover and Twente Could Go Goal Crazy

The UEFA Europa League’s unfortunate reputation is that of the UEFA Champions League’s ugly sister but it throws up more beautiful match bets than its more alluring sibling.

Hannover and Twente shared four goals between themselves when they met in the Netherlands two months ago and there is every chance of another goal-heavy game in Germany this week given the state of play in UEFA Europa League Group L.

The German Bundesliga is a relatively high-scoring league so it is quite some effort to be the team competing in it whose matches have the highest average number of goals. Hannover is that team, with its dozen games so far this season producing a huge mean of 3.75 goals per match. Only three times have Hannover games under gone the 2.5 line and the 96ers have yet to feature in a single goalless draw.

And it has been a similar story for Hannover in this term’s UEFA Europa League. Hannover has played nine matches in the competition for eight wins and one draw, scoring 25 goals and leaking 10 goals so that its games average 3.89 goals.

Hannover is guaranteed to qualify for the next phase of this season’s UEFA Europa League so it will feel no pressure when it runs out at the AWD-Arena to face Twente. And, with the Enschede-based side requiring an away victory to have any chance of joining Hannover in the knockout stage, one can expect the Dutch team to give it a red-hot go in Germany.

Backing Hannover and Twente to combine for more than two goals is a more than reasonable play, with the 2.5 total goals line offering up odds of around 4-6. But there is a case for being a bit more ambitious than that and snapping up odds of around 9-5 available about more than 3.5 goals. Look at the top rated bookmakers below for an idea on who to bet on this game with.

Neither Basel nor Neftci is one of European club football’s biggest names but they are worth backing to win their UEFA Europa League home matches versus Sporting and Partizan respectively, particularly since they are odds against.

Basel is around 11-10 to beat Sporting in Switzerland and that looks a few rolls over the odds. Basel managed to draw 0-0 with Sporting in Portugal and the Swiss team’s home form combined with away numbers of the Portuguese side, as well as the UEFA Europa League Group G ladder, suggest that the Swiss Super League champion should be trading at odds on.

Not only has Basel been triumphant in its last five games in all competitions but also it has won five and drawn two of its last seven home matches. On the other hand, Sporting has lost five and drawn two of its last seven games and it has not won any of its last 10 away matches, losing most of them. It is clear in which team the betting value lies.

Neftci is out of the UEFA Europa League but so is Partizan, which means that the game in Azerbaijan is a dead rubber. Even so, Neftci seems overpriced at around 13-8 to win because it drew 0-0 in Serbia and Partizan’s recent away record in European competitions is absolutely terrible.

Partizan has lost its three UEFA Europa League away matches this season and, in last term’s tournament, it failed to beat Shamrock in Ireland. The Belgrade-based club ended up in the UEFA Europa League because it bowed out of the UEFA Champions League having lost both home and away to AEL.

One would have to favour the home side in any UEFA Europa League game in which the result will have no bearing on the outcome of the competition and Neftci will go into the match off the back of an 8-1 home victory in its domestic league.