Basel vs Stuttgart Prediction: Goals almost a guarantee with these two teams

FC Basel and VfB Stuttgart, who face off at the former's St. Jakob-Park in Switzerland on Thursday (20:00 BST, TNT Sports 7), made contrasting starts to the league phase of the 2025/25 Uefa Europa League last week. Basel lost 2-1 in Germany to Freiburg, whose Bundesliga rivals Stuttgart triumphed 2-1 at home against Spanish side Celta Vigo.

Below are my Basel vs Stuttgart predictions, supported by all the latest team news and match odds.

Team News

Bernie Traore (leg), Finn van Breemen (knee) and Koba Koindredi (muscle) have been joined in the Basel treatment room by Keigo Tsunemoto (hamstring), who was taken off in the 57th minute of his side's defeat in Freiburg last Wednesday and subsequently missed Sunday's 2-1 Super League home loss to Luzern.

Philip Otele, who started Basel's first league phase match on the bench but scored their only goal of the game in the 84th minute, could get the nod to start on the left-hand side of the Swiss side's attack on Thursday.

Xherdan Shaqiri, who scored 21 times last season and already has six goals to his name in 2025/26, should start as their No. 10.

Football Odds

Stuttgart, meanwhile, are without several first-team players.

Justin Diehl (muscle), Silas (ankle) and Deniz Undav (knee) are all injured, while Ameen Al-Dakhi, Pascal Stenzel, Nikolas Nartey and Yannik Keitel were all left out of Die Roten's European squad for the first half of the season.

Today's Football Fixtures

Basel vs Stuttgart Odds

Basel have lost their last two games, and are 11/4 underdogs to claim all three points on Thursday, implying a 26.7% probability of success. Stuttgart, meanwhile, have won their last three matches, and are 9/10, or a 52.6% chance, to make it two wins from two in Europe.

The draw is priced at 11/4 and both teams to score at 8/15.

Betfred are offering a couple of Price Boosts for this fixture, including Shaqiri To Score The First Goal at 8/1 (was 7/1).

Both Teams To Score & Total Goals Over/Under +2.5 - Yes & Over 2.5 @ 4/5

Goals tend to follow Basel, with nine of their 12 games across all competitions this season producing at least three, and both teams have struck in all nine.

BTTS-Yes was also a winner in a 1-1 draw with FC Copenhagen on August 20, so that's a 75% success rate for both teams to score and over 2.5 total goals, and an 83.3% success rate just for both teams scoring.

The above selection has landed in Basel's last four games, including their 2-1 UEL league-phase defeat to Freiburg last Wednesday.

Stuttgart, meanwhile, have seen both teams score and over 2.5 total goals land in six of their eight matches (75%), including three of their last four.

At just under EVS, this looks like the best bet for Thursday's meeting at St. Jakob-Park.

Player to Receive a Card - Lorenz Assignon (VFB) @ 23/10

Basel's left-hand side, comprised of full-back Dominik Schmid and winger Otele, won 10 fouls between them in Sunday's defeat to Luzern, which accounted for 52.63% of the 19 free-kicks that were whistled in their side's favour.

Both players have shown form for drawing fouls, with Schmid averaging 1.2 fouls won per game in last season's Swiss Super League, and Otele averaging 1.1 per game, despite six of his 18 competition appearances coming as a substitute.

Already this season, Schmid is averaging 2.1 per game, and Otele 1.9 per game.

Schmid, who was taken down twice by Freiburg last week, has been upended 11 times in his last three league games, drawing yellow-card challenges from FC Sion winger Josias Lukembila and Luzern right-back Pius Dorn, who also fouled Otele twice on Sunday.

Otele, meanwhile, only played just over half an hour against Freiburg in Basel's UEL league phase opener, but attracted right-back Philipp Treu into fouling him, an offence for which the German was booked.

It makes a lot of sense, then, to target Stuttgart's starting right-back for a card on Thursday.

Having played the duration of last week's UEL win against Celta Vigo, and remaining rooted to the bench in Sunday's 2-1 win at FC Koln, it appears that Lorenz Assignon is set to start at right-back in Switzerland.

The 25-year-old, who averaged a yellow every 3.5 games for Stade Rennais in Ligue 1 last season (nine in 32 appearances), was booked on his full Stuttgart debut on August 26, as his new club drew 4-4 with Braunschweig in regulation time of their DFB-Pokal first-round tie, before winning on penalties.

Assignon was cautioned in his side's first European game of the campaign, making three fouls in total against Celta Vigo.

The Frenchman, who has conceded seven free-kicks across his last two starts, could be in for a busy night in Basel on Thursday, with Schmid and Otele both likely to pose problems, making him a prime candidate in the card market.

Offers

Acca Flex: Place a pre-match 5+ leg Football accumulator and get a CASH bonus up to 100% if all of your selections win or your money back as CASH if one leg lets you down