Prediction, Odds & Betting Tips for Lille vs. Slavia Prague at UEFA Champions League
Prediction, Odds & Betting Tips for Lille vs. Slavia Prague at UEFA Champions League
Lille won’t be playing at home in the first UCL qualifying game against Slavia Prague. The French unit has to dislocate to Valenciennes, making its job much tougher than expected. Still, according to the bookies, they are the favorites in this one. On the other side, Slavia comes to France without pressure, knowing that it has 90 minutes at home in the rematch and that it doesn’t need to rush into tricky and risky situations.
Lille
The Dogues have survived Istanbul hell. After allowing a late goal in injury time, the French team responded and hit back during extra time to silence the ferocious home crowd and secure the Champions League playoffs.
A 2-1 win in the first meeting decided this for Bruno Genesio’s boys, who have realistic chances of entering the top tier of European international football. However, we have to credit the players’ mentality, as they rebuffed Fener’s attacks and even scored in the toughest possible situation, with the momentum and the swing on the host’s side.
When looking at their recent games, counting the friendly ones, Lille’s biggest problem is the defense, which constantly allows goals. This team conceded in the past five contests.
Slavia Prague
The last time Slavia lost was in April. After that, they started an 18-game defeatless streak during which this team won 14 events and had four ties. Czech championship runners-up have five consecutive triumphs at the moment, of which four came with a clean sheet.
They were better than Union SG from Belgium in the previous round, beating them 3-1 at home and then 0-1 on the road, displaying a very confident performance, and an obvious difference in quality.
Slavia is a unit that likes to dictate the tempo and attack. Over the past few years, this style has provided decent results in Europe. We’ve seen them going deep into the knockout stages, which has to be respected.
Lille: Chevalier; Santos, Alexsandro, Diakite, Ribeiro; Gudmundsson; Cabella, Andre, Gomes, Haraldsson; David
Slavia Prague: Kinsky; Prebsl, Ogbu, Zima; Masopust, Oscar, Zafeiris, Diouf; Schranz, Chory, Provod
In 2009, the two units met in the Europa League group stage. Slavia suffered two nasty defeats, with Lille beating them 1-5 in Prague and later on 3-1 at home in France.
This game promises fun. Be sure that the Czechs won’t always lay back but attack whenever possible. Lille already showed that they like to break the rivals through offense, not defense, and when we add that Slavia has the same approach, our pick here would be for both teams to score.
Our verdict: Both teams to score