Europa League accumulator: Levante and Benfica to win at home
Published:Our record in the Europa League has been far from disastrous this season and with eight matches taking place across the first legs of the round of 16 fixtures, we have picked three bets that pay out at a combined 11/1.
Newcastle head the treble away at Anzi, although Alan Pardew’s men are tipped for defeat in Russia.
Anzi have won all seven home games in this season’s competition, while Newcastle have emerged victorious in just one of their five fixtures on the road.
Furthermore, the Toon have only won two away games all season in all competitions and their chances of success here will not be helped by a raft of absences, which include Tim Krul, Papiss Cisse, Fabricio Coloccini and Jonas Gutierrez.
However, with Anzi 8/13 for the victory, it is worth combining this with the game being a low-scoring affair.
Six of their seven successes have been either 1-0 or 2-0 and so under 2.5 goals in Russia is a respectable prediction.
Porto are the only team to have gained anything from Benfica in their last 13 home games when claiming a 2-2 draw at the Estádio da Luz.
Bordeaux’s chances of getting a positive result in Portugal are also not helped by the fact that Benfica are unbeaten in all of their 11 career home fixtures with French opposition.
It is also interesting that Bordeaux have won just a third of their nine fixtures since selling striker Yoan Gouffran to Newcastle.
Finally, we are expecting Levante to carry their fine home form through a tricky meeting with Rubin Kazan, conquerors of Atletico Madrid in the last round.
Levante have won to nil in four of their five Europa League games this season and come into this fixture in good spirits after a promising La Liga draw at Valencia last time.
Rubin have an interesting domestic clash at home to Zenit following this game and so may have one eye on that, while they have lost five of their last six ahead of their latest trip to Spain.
Europa League selections
Benfica to beat Bordeaux @ 8/15
Levante to beat Rubin Kazan @ 5/4
Anzi to beat Newcastle & under 2.5 goals to be scored @ 12/5
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
