SCOTTISH football aficionado Gerry Taylor (@thefurlongpole) shares his verdict on Thursday night's Europa League MD1 action involving Scottish clubs.
Real Betis vs Celtic | Thursday 16th September 2021, 17:45 | BT Sport
Celtic return to the city of Seville, the scene of their UEFA Cup final, were they narrowly lost out 3-2 in extra time to Jose Mourinho’s Porto.
This will be a tough opening Europa League tie for Ange Postecoglou’s charges. Los Verdiblancos have only lost once in ten La Liga games (Real Madrid), and prior to that it was Barcelona who prized the three points, from the Estadio Benito Villamarin.
Celtic are badly weakened with injuries going into this – Kyogo Furuhashi, Callum McGregor, Greg Taylor and James Forrest miss out.
Betis will look to striker Borja Iglesias to the damage to the Hoops here. However, ex-Lyon attacker Nabil Fekir has some interesting form in European competitions. In his last 11 games, he has scored 6 times and been carded on 5 occasions.
Scoring goals in the Champions League away to the likes of Shakhtar Donetsk and Man City in the Champions League. So the Celts defence will need to be on the top of their game to stop the likes of Fekir.
So an interest on Fekir to score anytime at 10/3 with Skybet, and to be carded at 7/2 with Paddy Power, maybe the way to go in this opening Group G fixture. I’m also going to try combining the two occurrences with William Hill’s Build Your Odds at a nice 14/1.
Best Bets
Real Betis vs Celtic – Nabil Fekir to score at anytime (10/3 SkyBet)
Real Betis vs Celtic – Nabil Fekir to be carded (7/2 Paddy Power)
Real Betis vs Celtic – Nabil Fekir to score and be carded (14/1 William Hill)
