Europa League, League phase, Thursday, 26.09.2024 at 21:00
Does the new alignment of the Europa League still offer opportunities for teams that you wouldn’t trust quite as much when it comes to the knockout round? The answer to this question will not be so easy to come by.
In my Braga Maccabi Tel Aviv, I will now focus on two teams that we do not expect to be at the top. However, there is definitely a favorite in this game. That’s why I’ll explain to you in more detail why I’m betting on the Double Chance 1X at Under 3.5 goals as a rather low-risk option.
Hand on heart: Who can spontaneously name the teams that faced each other in the 2011 Europa League final? You might be able to come up with FC Porto, but Sporting Braga, with all due respect, might slip your mind!
The Portuguese reached the quarter-finals in 2022, but that was it for their major international successes. Perhaps this season will finally see them go far again, and their seven opponents could certainly be more difficult to read.
Maccabi Tel Aviv, Olympiakos Piräus, Bodö/Glimt, Elfsborg, Hoffenheim, AS Rom, Royale Union and Lazio Rom come in that order. It is quite possible that Braga will be among the last eight.
But be careful, especially at the start, don’t underestimate anyone. Sporting has a long qualification behind them, they entered in the second round and did more than well in the six games.
2:0 and 5:0 against Petah Tikva, 0:0 and 2:1 against Servette Geneva and 2:1 and 2:2 against Rapid Vienna, especially the last two rounds in the qualifiers were more than close, sometimes with few goals, but then again peppered with a lot of goals.
Braga twice came from behind against Rapid, but if I can make one criticism, it’s perhaps that they’ve conceded goals in each of the last three games. Does this trend extend to the league?
Yes and no. In the Primeira Liga, the results don’t really go together. 1-1, 1-0, 3-1, 0-0, 0-2, 3-0? It’s a bit strange! But there is one common factor, and it’s not meant as encouragement.
In all three home games, namely, they did not play to zero, but in all three games away from home they did. On Thursday, the Portuguese will start their Europa League campaign with a home game, so that doesn’t have to be an advantage.
The bottom line – and this is the positive thing – is that Braga have only lost once this season. In the first duel with Maccabi Tel Aviv, the team is in the role of the clear favorite anyway.
All our bookmakers see the team in front, with odds of 1.47 to 6.00. Maccabi Tel Aviv reached the round of 16 of an international competition once in 2023/24, but lost to Piraeus in the Conference League.
Let me say a few words about this, because: The Israelis actually managed to lose 6-1 in the second leg after winning 4-1 in the first leg and were eliminated in a thoroughly embarrassing manner!
A more than drastic experience, but at least Olympiakos is not among the first seven opponents this time. After Maccabi was knocked out of the CL qualifiers (1-1 and 0-1 against Steaua Bucharest), they continued in the Europa League qualifiers.
The team beat Panevezys (2:1 and 3:0) and Topola (3:0 and 5:1) to advance, so they had no problems at all and treated their fans to one victory after another with plenty of goals.
With four wins and only one goal conceded, Maccabi Tel Aviv has also made an excellent start to the new round of the domestic league. However, it goes without saying that Sporting Braga is in a completely different league.
Will Sporting Braga really beat Maccabi Tel Aviv as convincingly as the odds suggest? Of course, the Portuguese team is individually stronger, but the guest team should certainly not be underestimated.
I have therefore decided to use the double chance 1X. Whether there will be many or few goals is actually very difficult to predict.
Sometimes Braga makes it exciting with hardly any goal opportunities, then again a 2:2 is possible. Since Maccabi has made a good impression defensively in my analysis, I have now decided on the following betting combination:
Braga scores with a maximum of three goals!
