FCSB vs PAOK Prediction: Plenty of cards and corners in the Romanian capital

FCSB and PAOK will duel it out in the second leg of their Uefa Europa League knockout phase play-off tie on Thursday (17:45, TNT Sports 7), a week after the Romanian side won 2-1 in Thessaloniki. The Greek outfit took the lead at Toumba Stadium in the 21st minute through Ally Samatta but a red card to Taison on the stroke of half-time ultimately proved to be their downfall as Andrei Gheorhita equalised for the visitors in the 50th minute before fellow substitute Joyskim Dawa struck what proved to be the winner 10 minutes later.

PAOK must now win on Thursday to, at the very least, force extra time at Arena Nationala in Bucharest. Below you can find my FCSB vs PAOK predictions, supported by all the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Octavian Popescu, Mihai Lixandru, Darius Olaru, Miha Toma and William Baeten are all currently nursing injuries for the hosts, who are also without the suspended Daniel Birligea following the 24-year-old forward's yellow card in Greece.

First-leg goalscorers Gheorghita and Dawa both started Sunday's 2-0 win at Gloria Buzau in the Romanian SuperLiga and the duo will hope to earn promotions to FCSB's Europa League starting XI this week.

Football Odds

Taison is, of course, banned for the visitors following his first-half dismissal last Thursday, and his absence could see Kiril Despodov handed a start in Bucharest.

Andrija Zivkovic, Shola Shoretire and Fedor Chalov all put their hands up for a starting berth by each coming off the bench to score in Sunday's 7-0 thrashing of Lamia in the Super League Greece 1.

Stefan Schwab and Dominik Kotarski are both injured for PAOK, who won't be able to call upon Tiemoue Bakayoko, Jonathan Gomez, Dejan Lovren, Sergio Pena, Vieirinha or Mateusz Wieteska as none of the quintet were included in the club's European list.

Antonis Tsiftsis replaced Kotarski between the sticks on the weekend and the 25-year-old is expected to deputise for the stricken shot-stopper in the Romanian capital.

FCSB vs PAOK Odds

FCSB have lost just two of their last 18 matches in all competitions and Elias Charalambous' side took seven points from 12 on offer at home in the Europa League league phase, beating RFS (4-1) and Midtjylland (2-0) before drawing with Olympiakos (0-0) and losing to Manchester United (0-2). Thursday's hosts are 7/4, or a 36.4% chance, to do the double over PAOK, who are 6/4 to win and at least force extra time in Bucharest, implying a 40% probability of success.

The draw, which would be enough to send FCSB through to the last 16, is priced at 12/5, and both teams to score at 4/5.

The Romanians are 2/7 to win the tie by any means while PAOK are 5/2 in the same market.

Away Team Total Corners Over/Under +4.5 - Over 4.5 @ 8/11

PAOK will be pushing to draw level in this tie so it should be them that are pressing for a goal and that could mean the visitors taking plenty of shots and earning a few corners along the way.

The Greek side took 13 in their league phase defeat to FCSB in October, eight of them coming after the Romanians had taken the lead. They only managed one last week but they were in front after 21 minutes and down to 10 men before half-time and both of those things played a big part in the visitors taking control of proceedings.

FCSB conceded four corners in their first three league phase matches before giving up six to Man United, so five feels feasible on Thursday for PAOK, who took four away to Real Sociedad last time out on their travels in Europe and five at RFS before that.

Booking Points Over/Under +62.5 - Over 62.5 @ 11/8

FCSB and PAOK have already played each other twice this season and in both games, there were plenty of cards. In the first, the Romanian side received six yellow cards, two of them resulting in a red for Darius Olaru, with the Greek outfit cautioned twice. There were 95 booking points dished out by German referee Sascha Stegemann (10 for a yellow, 25 for a straight red, 35 for two bookable offences with Betfred), who must've appeared lenient compared to last week's Belgian whistleblower Lawrence Visser, who produced 10 yellows (125 booking points), a fifth of them flashed in the direction of Taison who was dismissed.

I see no reason why this booking bonanza discontinues on Thursday as there is even more on the line in Bucharest; the hosts will be doing everything in their power to hold on to their lead, while the visitors will be going all out to get on even terms.

Perhaps another 125 booking points is ambitious, but certainly, over 62.5 is achievable given the state of play and the previous two meetings between these sides this season, so 11/8 provides good value, in my opinion.

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