Feyenoord vs Sturm Graz Prediction: Van Persie to save his dad’s job?

With just two games to go in the Europa League group phase, the clash between 30th-place Feyenoord and 29th-place Sturm Graz feels like a survival play-off. 

A defeat for either side will likely end their hopes of progression, so this is a gargantuan tie for both. Below you can find my Feyenoord vs Sturm Graz predictions featuring team news and betting tips.

Team News

Gijs Smal is facing a late fitness test for the hosts, as under pressure manager Robin van Persie deals with a long list of absentees including Jakub Moder, Gernot Trauner and Malcolm Jeng. 

Shaqueel van Persie, the 19-year-old son of Robin, started and scored a brace in Sunday’s 4-3 defeat to Sparta Rotterdam and could be thrown in from the start here in place of first-choice striker Ayase Uefa. Can you believe Van Persie’s son is 19 and scoring goals already? A stark reminder that we are all rapidly growing old and time waits for no man.

Football Odds

The away side are without Leon Grigic, Dimitri Lavalee and Alexandar Borkovic, who all have long-term injuries. New manager Fabio Ingolitsch will take charge of his first competitive game since moving from relegation-threatened Rheindorf Altach over the winter break. 

It makes his team a difficult one to predict, but Seedy Jatta is likely to be trusted with the job of leading the line.

Feyenoord vs Sturm Graz Odds

Feyenoord are the favourites for this one, priced at 2/5, which gives them an implied win probability of 71%. Sturm Graz are the 6/1 outsiders, with a draw at 4/1 not that beneficial for either side. 

Over 2.5 goals is 4/9, BTTS is 8/13 and Ueda is the favourite to open the scoring at 4/1.

Over 3.5 goals @ 11/10

Despite everything that is riding on this game, we should get a pretty open and attacking encounter given the state of the two teams. Van Persie’s men have across their last seven games, seen scorelines such as 6-3, 4-3 (twice) and 3-2, with both teams scoring in 10 of their last 11 outings. 

Sturm Graz have been on their winter break and could be caught cold here, but they did draw 4-4 with Copenhagen in a friendly last week and haven’t been that convincing from a defensive perspective this term. Should be a good watch.

Shaqueel van Persie to score anytime @ 11/10

Let’s back the man in the news to bag another goal. RVP is obviously going to be coy when it comes to giving his own son minutes, but rather than a case of nepotism, it is pretty clear that Shaqueel has the makings of a top striker already.

His first goal against Sparta Rotterdam was a clever close-range flick, and his second was a wonderful overhead kick from inside the box. He is going to be full of confidence, and I think he may be given a start to show what he can do. I fancy his chances in this one. RVP is on the touchline - let’s hope SVP is amongst the goals.

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