Football Accumulator Tips: Palace to do the double in 8/1 Thursday four-fold

The semi-final second-leg ties of the Europa League and Conference League provide the highlights on Thursday’s football coupon. Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest meet in an all-Premier League Europa League last-four showdown, while Crystal Palace hold a 3-1 advantage over Conference League rivals Shakhtar Donetsk.

The continental cup competitions provide all four selections in my Football Accumulator Tips for Thursday, 7 May.

Football Odds

Nottingham Forest (A) to win tie vs Aston Villa @ 8/11

Nottingham Forest hold a 1-0 lead over Aston Villa following the first leg of their Europa League semi-final contest at the City Ground and the Tricky Trees look in no mood to give up their advantage.

Forest are unbeaten in their last 10 games, winning all of their last five matches and Vítor Pereira’s men were twice the better team in two games against Villa last month.

The Reds limited Unai Emery’s men to expected-goal tallies of only 0.79 and 1.02 in Europa League and Premier League meetings at the City Ground last month, and while Villa are likely to offer a little more at Villa Park, the home side are not in good form.

It’s three straight defeats for Villa, who were awful when hitting only one shot on target in a 2-1 loss to struggling Tottenham at the weekend, and a rotated team is not enough to explain away that shocking effort.

Forest have the advantage in this tie and they look capable of taking at least a draw from Villa Park and progressing to the Europa League final.

Freiburg (H) to beat Braga (90 mins) @ 4/5

Freiburg have a 2-1 deficit to overturn against Braga, but a return to the Europa-Park-Stadion should see the Breisgau Brazilians home.

Julian Schuster's side have lost only three of their 23 home matches this season and no team has left Freiburg with a victory in the Europa League this term.

Celta Vigo were crushed 3-0 in Freiburg’s most recent Europa contest on home turf and that followed a 5-1 thrashing of Genk.

Braga were good in the first leg, but this rates a far more difficult challenge.

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Crystal Palace (H) to beat Shakhtar Donetsk (90 mins) @ 3/5

Chasing a tie against a side with the counter-attacking potential of Crystal Palace is a dangerous game and Shakhtar Donetsk head to Selhurst Park 3-1 down.

The Eagles were excellent in Krakow last Thursday and the league form of Oliver Glasner’s men can be ignored with the south Londoners going all-out for European glory.

Palace should seal their Conference League final spot in style.

Over 2.5 goals in Strasbourg vs Rayo Vallecano @ 10/11

There have been 28 goals in Strasbourg’s last nine matches and another entertaining tie awaits against Conference League semi-final rivals Rayo Vallecano.

Last week’s first leg ended in a 1-0 Rayo victory, but that game featured 29 efforts on goal and now Strasbourg have to push for the win.

Expect at last three goals at Stade de la Meinau.