Europa League
2013-08-08 - Bursaspor vs Vojvodina Novi Sad
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football : Europa League: Third Qualifying Round
Venue: Bursa Atatürk, Bursa (TUR)
Thursday 8th August – Kickoff time: 19:30 GMT+1
Bursaspor (Turkey)
Bursaspor finished fourth in the Turkish Super Liga behind giants Galatasaray, Fenerbahce and Besiktas to book a place in the Europa League for the third consecutive time.
The “Green Crocodiles” will be looking to qualify for the group stages of a European competition again, after finishing fourth in a group with Manchester United, Valencia and Ranger in the 2010/11 UCL.
They haven’t been too successful in doing it, since they were eliminated in the play-off round of the competition for two years in a row by Anderlecht and Twente.
In order to make it to the play-off again, they’ll have to preserve their away goal advantage against Serbian side Vojvodina after a first leg that finished 2-2.
Newcomer Taiwo saved the day for the Turks in Novi Sad as the former AC Milan left back netted a 90th minute goal that puts Bursaspor in a good position before the second leg.
Vojvodina Novi Sad (Serbia)
Vojvodina Novi Sad scored 12 goals in their QR1 and QR2 ties against Hibernians and Budapest Honved, but Bursaspor proves to be a way tougher opponent than those two.
The Serbians showed a lot of character in the first leg, coming back from 0-1 down, but they couldn’t hold on to their advantage and ended up being equalized in the 90th minute.
This is Vojvodina’s fourth presence in the Europa League and they are yet to make it to the play-off round. After the first leg result it seems like they won’t do it this time either.
The Betting Verdict
Serbia has good quality players, but unfortunately for their domestic competition most of them are playing abroad.
It was no surprise that Partizan Belgrade got eliminated in the UCL third qualifying round by Bulgarian side Ludogoret, while the other Serbian giant, Red Star Belgrad will probably suffer the same fate after their 1-3 defeat in Odesa last week.
Bursaspor on the other hand keeps investing large sums in order to keep up with the three Turkish Giants, they’ve recently signed goalkeeper Sebastian Frey and left back Taiwo to strengthen the squad.
Playing in Turkey is difficult for any team, let alone a Vojvodina Novi Sad side that doesn’t have much of a European experience, so I’ll back Bursaspor to confirm their status as favorites with a win here.
The Pick :
Bursaspor 2-0 Vojvodina
HANDICAP BETTING TIP :
Take Bursaspor on AH -0.75 at 1.83 at BetVictorConfidence: 7/10
