Europa League, Playoffs, first leg, Thursday, 2/13/2025 at 6:45 PM
They ended up in the middle of the table with twelve points – it’s fitting that their paths now cross in the playoffs! The first legs of the Europa League take place on Thursday, and I’ll now look at a game that doesn’t sound like a total treat at first glance.
In my Ferencvaros Budapest Viktoria Pilsen betting tip, I come across two teams that I can’t really get a grip on after the preliminary round. The only thing that is clear to me at first glance is that the home side play attacking football, and that’s exactly why I’m betting on “both teams to score”!
Neither of the two are among the top eight teams that made it directly into the knockout round at the end of the season. Ferencvaros Budapest and Viktoria Plzen have secured twelve points, and now only one of them will be able to stay in the competition.
Have you been following our Europa League betting from the start? Then you will certainly not have failed to notice that there were some teams that did not find a clear line. These two definitely fall under that category.
Ferencvaros has repeatedly attracted attention in recent years, including victories against the big teams. In the EL preliminary round, we saw a lot of light but also some shadows in the Hungarians.
After the 2-1 defeats against Anderlecht and Tottenham, the club was already under pressure, but was able to stabilize with three wins in a row (1-0 against Nice, 4-0 against Kiev and 4-1 against Malmö) and even dream of advancing directly.
But the subject was then immediately dropped, because first there was a 0-5 defeat against PAOK Saloniki, before there was also nothing to be gained from the 0-2 defeat against Eintracht Frankfurt. The playoffs were secured with a 4-3 win against Alkmaar.
So what do the results tell us? First of all, it is clear that three of the four defeats were away from home. At home, things went much better with three wins, only the 1-2 defeat to Tottenham spoils the statistics.
Ferencvaros won four times, and in these games the green-whites always took the lead. They lost four times – and in each of those games, they also conceded the first goal at some point during the game.
So there is a relatively clear line that Viktoria Plzen should show: just don’t concede the 0-1 on Thursday! In all four home games, which are also interesting, goals have already been scored before half-time.
The betting providers have obviously included this in their portfolio, because a bet that exactly the same will happen against Pilsen will get you odds of just 1.40. Of course, you can take a little more risk and say that the home side will score before half-time. That way, the tip will pay significantly more at 1.91.
The Hungarians kept a clean sheet five times in the first half, so nine of the 16 goals they conceded only came in the second 45 minutes. Barnabas Varga is the top striker in the home team, with six goals to his name.
For the first direct duel with Viktoria Plzen, you can determine the favorite role with our betting providers with a German license, because an average 2.20 meets a 3.30.
That basically leaves Viktoria Plzen with all chances of progressing, but the Czechs have to face the fact that they have not scored a goal in five international knockout games.
Plzen started the preliminary round with three draws, sharing points against Frankfurt (3-3), Razgrad (0-0) and PAOK Saloniki (2-2) in very different games. They then won 2-1 against Real Sociedad and Dynamo Kiev.
So qualifying directly for the knockout round was definitely possible, but after the 1-2 loss to Manchester United and the 2-0 win over Anderlecht, Victoria did not get past a 1-3 loss to Bilbao.
Against Bilbao, by the way, it was the first time that it went into the half-time break behind. 3:3, 2:2, 2:1 and 1:3? It definitely wasn’t boring away from home, goals on both sides were standard.
Sometimes you score twice just before the end, as in Frankfurt, and sometimes you give away a 2-0 lead. It’s all possible in Pilsen. There is no one top scorer, but there are seven players who have scored.
Ferencvaros Budapest and Viktoria Pilsen have given the neutral spectator in the Europa League group stage quite a lot of joy, because we have really seen some high-scoring games.
The Hungarians are definitely strong at home, scoring four times in the last two home games alone. There has also been a lot going on at Viktoria’s away from home, with the average even exceeding 4.0 (not only because of the 3-3 in Frankfurt).
Therefore, I have decided to give both a lot of credit in offense and at the same time to say: the defense lines do not get through without mistakes. This results in the following tip:
Both teams score!
