Daily Acca Tips: Europa League and Premier League Darts on show
Published:
Atletico and Anderson amongst this fivefold
There’s top-class tungsten and fine football on the cards this Thursday night. On the pitch, the Europa League semi-finals are joined by some Copa Libertadores action.
Meanwhile at the oche, there’s a raft of Premier League Darts games – including a double-header for Michael van Gerwen. The Coral News Team are back with their tips on the evening’s sporting bonanza.
Arsenal have produced some good performances in this season’s Europa League. But they now face an Atletico side who are simply a cut above. Diego Simeone’s men sit second in La Liga, and have already produced two away-day maulings in the UEL, at FC Copenhagen (4-1) and Lokomotiv Moscow (5-1).
The Gunners have won one of their last three games, and Arsene Wenger’s side have a reputation for crumbling on the big stage. There’s a good chance Atleti will sneak a victory in London.
In the other UEL tie, Marseille are targeting glory against surprise package Red Bull Salzburg. At home in the first leg, Les Olympiens are targeting a fourth straight win in all competitions – and have scored 13 goals in the last three games.
Salzburg lost their last European away game, shipping four goals at Lazio. And they’ve been patchy travellers as a rule. That was underlined by defeat at a very ordinary LASK Linz side earlier this month.
MvG’s first game of Thursday’s Premier League Darts session sees the Dutchman face Daryl Gurney. It’s a match-up which Mighty Mike has typically dominated, winning 13 of the pair’s 15 meetings – including each of the last seven.
Van Gerwen also heads into this tungsten tussle as the man in form. He’s already won the European Open and German Darts Grand Prix in 2018. By contrast, Gurney exited last month’s European Open to world number 48 Ron Meulenkamp.
The evening’s action also sees Anderson take on Simon Whitlock at the Manchester Arena. And the Scot has won each of the last three heads-to-heads comfortably, including victory en route to a semi-final berth in 2017’s Grand Slam of Darts.
This year has also started well for The Flying Scotsman, who won March’s UK Open with a dominant 11-7 final defeat of Corey Cadby. Whitlock’s recent form has been okay, but he’s hardly pulling up trees these days.
The evening’s action closes out with the Copa Libertadores. Amongst the games, Argentine giants River Plate are looking to strengthen their hopes of a place in the knockout stages against an Emelec side who sit rock bottom of the group.
River are in fine form, winning their last four games in all competitions without conceding a goal. That includes a 1-0 victory away to Emelec. Speaking of the Colombian side, they’ve managed a single point from three group games and are also enduring a dismal run of form domestically.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
