Go Ahead Eagles vs FCSB Prediction: Home win picked out

Dutch outfit Go Ahead Eagles will make their Europa League bow on Thursday when they welcome FCSB to De Adelaarshorst (17:45 BST, TNT Sports 10). 

Kowet won the KNVB Cup last season to qualify for the league phase, and below you can find my Go Ahead Eagles vs FCSB predictions.

Team News

The Go Ahead Eagles could bring Milan Smit into the XI after he scored twice in the Overijssel derby from the bench, with 22-year-old in line for his second start in all competitions. Soren Tengstedt is a doubt along with Pim Saathof and Julius Dirksen for the hosts, so once again Victor Edvardsen will be relied upon for a spark. 

He’s only scored one goal this term, but has created 11 chances for his teammates, while Jakob Breum is also a bright young talent at just 21. 

Football Odds

FCSB midfielder Adrian Sut is unfortunate to miss this clash with a foot problem while Joyskim Dawa is still recovering from his knee issue. Florin Tanase hasn’t scored in almost a month but is likely to keep his place up front having bagged five goals in the Romanian top flight earlier in the season. 

Daniel Birligea scored in their recent 3-1 defeat to Botosani and will keep his place while Mamadou Thiam is going to try and provide some attacking thrust. 

Go Ahead Eagles vs FCSB Odds

Go Ahead Eagles have been priced as the 1/1 favourites to win this game, giving them an implied win percentage of 50%. The away side are 5/2 to take the three points while a draw is 11/4 for this fixture. 

Over 2.5 goals is 4/6, BTTS is 4/7 and Edvardsen is the favourite to open the scoring in this Europa League opener at 5/1. 

Go Ahead Eagles to win @ 1/1

A straightforward selection from me here. FCSB haven’t been good at all this season in the league, amassing just seven points from 10 domestic fixtures. They sit 13th out of 16 in the Romanian SuperLiga, having won just once from their opening 10 - which is a truly shocking record for a team competing in the Europa League this term. 

They won the league last season to reach the Champions League qualifiers, but they were knocked out by KF Shkendija, and had to beat Aberdeen over two legs to reach the Europa League league phase. They are not a good team right now, and so it makes sense to back Melvin Boel’s men to take the victory. The home side have only lost one of their six league matches, and they did secure a massive derby win last time out as they beat PEC Zwolle 2-0. Home win for me. 

Go Ahead Eagles to score in both halves @ 13/8

I don’t think there is much value in backing a goalscorer for the home side given the lack of goals from their number nine, but that doesn’t mean they can’t frequently find the net on Thursday. After a slow start, they’ve now scored 11 goals in six league games, but more importantly they’ve won their last two games by an aggregate scoreline of 5-0.

Meanwhile FCSB have conceded six goals in their last three fixtures, and look like they could be defensively shaky once again. Decent price on offer for them to struggle here. 

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