The Europa League has its second matchweek of the group stage on Thursday, and while big names such as Manchester United and A.S. Roma will take the pitch, we've found value in other places.
Two of our soccer analysts — BJ Cunningham and Nick Hennion — have derived their best bets from Thursday's slate of Europa League Odds, and we've compiled those picks below.
Read on for the bets to make on Thursday.
Our Thursday Europa League Best Bets
As Monaco vs. Ferencvaros
| AS Monaco Odds | -260 |
| Ferencvaros Odds | +650 |
| Draw | +390 |
| Over/Under | 3.5 (-138 / +114) |
| Day | Time | Thursday | 12:45 p.m. ET |
| How To Watch | Paramount+ |
| Odds via FanDuel. Get up-to-the-minute Soccer odds here. | |
Hennion: Last week, Ferencvaros went down a man on 16 minutes and still managed to escape with a 3-2 home victory while conceding four big scoring chances.
Now, it has to travel to Monaco to face, in my opinion, the second-best attack in France. Through seven Ligue 1 fixtures, Monaco have generated 17 big scoring chances, which is tied for the second-most chances in the French top flight. Additionally, just last week against Red Star Belgrade, Monaco put up 1.48 expected goals (xG) and four big scoring chances….away from home.
Additionally, this Ferencvaros side struggled mightily last season in road Europa League matches. In three fixtures against Celtic, Leverkusen and Real Betis, the Hungarian outfit was 0-3-0 (W-L-D) and lost two of three by at least two goals.
In terms of its xG output in those fixtures, Ferencvaros conceded 2.36 xG per 90 minutes and posted a -1.53 xGDiff per 90 minutes.
Based on those metrics, I’ll back Monaco at +100 or better to cover this spread at home.
Pick: AS Monaco -1.5 (-105)
Trabzonspor vs. Red Star Belgrade
| Trabzonspor Odds | +135 |
| Belgrade Odds | +200 |
| Draw | +220 |
| Over/Under | 2.5 (+100 / -122) |
| Day | Time | Thursday | 12:45 p.m. ET |
| How To Watch | Paramount+ |
| Odds via BetMGM. Get up-to-the-minute Soccer odds here. | |
Cunningham: Trabzonspor won the Turkish Super Lig last year, but they really weren’t that great of a defense. They allowed 1.62 xG per 90 minutes domestically in the 20th most difficult league in Europe by UEFA coefficients.
During the transfer window they added former Dortmund and Real Betis defender Marc Bartra and they have improved down to allowing only 1.36 xG per 90 minutes, but five of their six matches were against the bottom half of the Turkish table.
Red Star Belgrade is an incredible offense in the Serbian First Division. They averaged 2.41 xG per 90 minutes which is the highest average of anyone in the Europa League.
They played very conservatively against Monaco in their first Europa League match and only created 0.8 xG. However, a lot of that had to do with Monaco, who tends to play a counte- attacking style under manager Philippe Clement.
Trabzonspor loves to play an open style of game with their matches averaging 3.4 xG since the start of last season and their offense averaging 1.82 xG per 90 minutes in the Turkish Super Lig. That is what you saw in their opening match against Ferencvaros, which featured five goals, 3.7 xG and 33 shots.
I have 3.2 goals projected for this match, so I love the value on the over.
Pick: Over 2.5 (+100)
