Crystal Palace vs Shakhtar Donetsk Prediction: Sarr to strike for the fifth successive game

Crystal Palace have a two-goal cushion in their Uefa Conference League semi-final against Shakhtar Donetsk and the pair meet at Selhurst Park for the second leg on Thursday (20:00 BST, TNT Sports 2). The Eagles rested many of their key players in the weekend's Premier League defeat against AFC Bournemouth.

Read on for my Crystal Palace vs Shakhtar Donetsk predictions, aided by the latest team news and match odds from Betfred.

Team News

Palace trio Evann Guessand (knee), Eddie Nketiah (thigh) and Cheick Doucoure (muscle) remain injured.

After being rested against Bournemouth, Oliver Glasner is expected to restore Adam Wharton, Ismaila Sarr and Jean-Philippe Mateta to the lineup.

Football Odds

Lucas Ferreira and Lassina Traore scored for Shakhtar against Dynamo Kyiv over the weekend and the duo will be pushing for a start in attack in south London.

Defender Marlon picked up an injury in that clash and is now considered a doubt for Thursday.

Crystal Palace vs Shakhtar Donetsk Odds

Palace are the 3/5 favourites to win this match in regulation time and they have won three of their six home games in this competition.

Two of those fixtures have been draws, with the stalemate here valued at 10/3.

Shakhtar are a 4/1 bet to prevail inside 90 minutes.

Today's Football Fixtures

To Win To Nil - Crystal Palace @ 8/5

Palace have a healthy lead in the tie and they have rested key players in preparation for this home contest to finish the job. They managed three goals in Poland and they should be able to bag a few goals on home soil this time around.

Shakhtar will have to go for it if they wish to reach the final in Leipzig at the end of the month. They managed to grab a consolation goal last week but I don't think they will get on the scoresheet this time around.

Palace have managed to keep clean sheets in six of their previous seven home fixtures across all competitions, so I am backing the Eagles to win to nil at 8/5 (implied probability of 38.5%).

Anytime Goalscorer - Ismaila Sarr @ 5/4

Sarr has been Palace's biggest attacking threat in the Conference League. The winger has scored eight goals in 11 appearances, with five coming across his last four outings.

The Senegal international has found the net in each of those four games and so he should be brimming with confidence coming into Thursday. The fact that he is still priced above EVS to score anytime remains a mystery to me, but it continues to offer great value to punters.

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