Our Europa League Tips for Thursday - 25/11/21

Group G leaders Bayer Leverkusen can seal their passage into the knockout phase as group winners on Thursday evening when they welcome Celtic to the BayArena, with the Scottish side still in with a chance of top spot themselves.

Leverkusen’s 4-0 win in Glasgow back in September laid down the foundations for what has been a near-perfect group stage so far, with a 4-0 win over Real Betis last time out another highlight. Sitting on ten points from a possible 12, their three point gap over Betis in second, in addition to their superior head-to-head record, means a win will leave them unassailable at the top.

After a shaky run which started with a 5-1 defeat to Bayern Munich here, Leverkusen have picked up again, with their last three games yielding two wins and a draw. Celtic, meanwhile, have not lost a game since the reverse fixture, and a double-header against Ferencvaros allowed them to get some points on the board before the tougher challenges present themselves in the final two matches.

Form in Scotland has not been a reliable measurement for success in Europe in recent years, and despite Celtic’s good run, a result here looks unlikely, but they have scored 19 in their last nine games.

The top two in Group B meet in Monaco this week, when the side from the principality host Real Sociedad knowing that a victory will see them win the group thanks to a superior head-to-head record.

However, wins have been hard to come by of late for Niko Kovac’s side, as they are currently on a four-game winless streak coming into this one. They sit top of the group, but form in all competitions on home turf this season has been mediocre at best, winning just five of their 11 matches as hosts so far.

Real Sociedad, on the other hand, are still enjoying a fabulous start to the campaign, with the only blemish on their record so far still being a defeat on the opening day to Barcelona. Five wins and three draws from their last eight on the road shows they are very capable travellers, and this is a big reason why they sit second in the La Liga table. Defensive stability has been key too, with ten clean sheets already, and eight of their nine wins this season have been by 1-0 or 2-0 scorelines.

Matches at the Stade Louis II very rarely produce many goals, especially in the Europa League, as eight of the last ten in this competition here have seen under 2.5 goals scored. We tip La Real to win 1-0, 2-0 or 2-1, available at odds of 11/4.

Two sides coming off the back of crazy, fierce derby matches at the weekend meet in Istanbul, as Galatasaray host French side Marseille, in a vital match in Group E.

Galatasaray lost a frenetic Intercontinental Derby with Fenerbahce on Sunday, going down in the 94th minute after just having had a goal disallowed moments earlier following a VAR check, but Marseille’s clash with Lyon did not make it past the fourth minute before it was abandoned after Dimitri Payet was hit with a missile from the stands.

This means Marseille have technically not played a match in almost three weeks now and a lack of match practice may be their undoing, not to mention their form was pretty underwhelming of late anyway, winning just two of their last 11. Galatasaray, meanwhile, have kept their best form for Europe this season, already claiming the scalp of Lazio here, and earning a point in Marseille earlier in the group phase.

Galatasaray have yet to suffer defeat in the group and Marseille have not won on their last four trips to Turkey.

In another very close section, Danish champions Midtjylland welcome Group F leaders Braga to Herning, with the outcome of this match bound to have a massive bearing on the shape of the group come mid-December.

The Danes come into this tie on the back of two disappointing results either side of the international break domestically, losing to both Aarhus and Brondby, while Braga will be flying high following a commanding 6-0 demolition of Santa Clara at the weekend. Their form as a whole has been excellent recently, winning eight and drawing three of their last 12, with the only defeat coming away to Benfica.

Despite the poor run for Midtjylland, they have continued to have success in front of goal, with seven of their last ten matches seeing both teams score, while Braga’s last three matches have witnessed 19 goals altogether, Braga accounting for 11 of them. Three successive wins in this competition have seen Carlos Carvalhal’s team take top spot in the group, and a win here will secure Europa League football in the new year for the Portuguese side.

In Braga’s last 12 away matches in this competition, there have been 42 goals scored, and both teams scored in the reverse fixture back in September, when Braga won 3-1.

Two dismally out of form sides meet at the King Power Stadium in Group C, as Leicester City host Polish champions Legia Warsaw on Thursday night.

Legia may be Polish title holders, but they could be playing second-tier football next season if their form does not pick up very soon. Seeing Legia sit second-bottom of the Ekstraklasa is quite astonishing considering they have won seven of the previous nine league titles, but eight defeats in nine games has seen them plummet down the table, with their only win in that time coming against third-tier Swit Skolwin in the cup.

Leicester have not been scintillating by any means in recent weeks, but they have shown a ruthless edge in Europe, scoring seven in their four games so far, while Legia’s defence looks like one of the most fragile in Europe, letting in four to Piast Gliwice and three to each of Gornik Zabrze, Stal Mielec and Lechia Gdansk, as well as seven over two games with group leaders Napoli, all in the space of six weeks.