Europa League Betting Preview: Can Arsenal and Leicester City progress to the Round of 32?
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Odds and preview ahead of our pick of this evening’s Europa League ties
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal and Brendan Rodgers‘ Leicester City sit top of their respective groups with perfect win records, knowing three more points would seal their path into the Round of 32.
The Gunners travel to Norway to face Molde, who they beat 4-1 at the Emirates three weeks ago, while the Foxes head to Portugal to take on Braga, looking to emulate the 4-0 win they picked up at the King Power Stadium.
Elsewhere, Tottenham Hotspur and Rangers look to take control of their groups as they face Ludogorets and Benfica respectively, whilst Celtic aim to improve their record of one point from three games away to Sparta Prague.
Ahead of tonight’s action, we’ve previewed our pick of the fixture list.
With progression through to the knockout stages all but sealed for Rodgers’ side, he could look to include a few players returning from injury to get them back up to match fitness, including Timothy Castagne, Wilfred Ndidi and Ricardo Pereira.
Braga boss Carlos Carvalhal won’t want another 4-0 defeat on his team’s record in a group where goal difference could be all important for the runner up spot, but they’ll be without Rui Fonte through injury, and the highly rated David Carmo who is suspended after an accumulation of bookings.
Leicester are the 21/20 favourites to leave with three points, with the home side Braga at 5/2 and the draw found at 5/2.
Kelechi Iheanacho opened the scoring and bagged a brace in the reverse fixture, and he’s 3/1 to score first, or 9/2 to score two or more here.
Paulinho is Braga’s top scorer in the competition with two so far, and he’s a 15/8 anytime scorer.
Arsenal maintained their unbeaten start to this season’s Europa League campaign, while ending Molde’s in matchweek three’s fixtures, despite going a goal down at the Emirates.
Momentum has somewhat slowed since then, picking up only one Premier League point from two matches after a 3-0 home defeat to Aston Villa, followed by a 0-0 draw against Leeds United.
In contrast, Molde are back to winning ways and come into this game off the back of a comprehensive 3-0 win in the Eliteserien.
Despite that, Arsenal are odds-on 4/6 favourites to win, with Molde 19/5 to claim three points, with the draw at 3/1.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the 14/5 favourite to score first, with Alexandre Lacazette an 11/10 anytime scorer. Martin Ellingsen found the net in the reverse fixture, and he’s 9/2 to do so anytime.
It’s been a campaign to forget so far for Celtic, despite only narrowly missing out on qualification to the Champions League, with just one point from three matches.
After two defeats in two to start the campaign, Sparta Prague found their form at Celtic Park to pick up their first three points with a dominant 4-1 win, leaving the Czech side with an outside chance of qualification.
Celtic remain the favourites to win tonight at 11/10, while Sparta Prague are 23/10 to claim their second win. The draw is 13/5.
The Bhoys will need their strikers to find form if they’re to get anything from tonight’s match, and we make Odsonne Edouard and Albian Ajeti joint 4/1 favourites to score first, or 7/5 anytime.
Lukas Julis scored a hat trick at Celtic Park, and he’s 17/10 to score anytime, while there’s 66/1 on him scoring another hat trick.
Jose Mourinho has some tricky decisions to make for this tie, with one eye on Sunday’s Premier League clash with Chelsea. That could see Harry Kane and Son Heung-min drop to the bench, while the North London side will be without Toby Alderweireld through injury.
Ludogorets are yet to pick up a point in this season’s competition with three defeats from three, but they’ve only narrowly missed out on all three occasions. A 3-1 defeat to Spurs last time out left them with very little hope of qualifying for the knockout round, but they can still cause trouble for others.
Tottenham are odds-on 1/11 favourites to win at home, while the Bulgarian side are 25/1 to cause an upset. The draw is available at 10/1.
Carlos Vinicius could take Kane’s place up front should the England international be rested, and he’s 12/5 to open the scoring. Gareth Bale is 8/13 to score anytime.
Claudiu Keseru is the favourite to score first for Ludogorets at 16/1, or there’s 9/2 on him finding the net anytime.
If the stars align, Rangers could also see themselves through to the Round of 32 tonight, but their fate isn’t solely in their hands. A win for the Gers, paired with Standard Liege beating Lech Poznan would seal their spot in the knockout phase.
Steven Gerrard will be annoyed that it’s not totally in their control after being 3-1 up against 10 men with less than 15 minutes to play against Benfica last time out. Two late goals from the Portuguese side meant the points were shared.
The Scottish league leaders have won twice, scoring 12 without reply in the two games since, while Benfica have won one and lost to Braga.
Rangers are 23/20 favourites to claim three points, with Benfica 11/5 to take control of Group D with a win. Another draw can be found at 13/5.
Alfredo Morelos and Kemar Roofe are both at 9/2 to score first, or 6/4 to score anytime. Haris Seferovic and Luca Waldschmidt could provide the biggest threat for Benfica. They’re both 5/1 to break the deadlock, or 7/4 to find the net anytime.
All Odds and Markets correct as of date of publication.
