LEICESTER travel to Slavia Prague for their knockout Europa League tie on Thursday evening.Daniel McCulloch (@DMcCulloch1984) shares his favourite fancies.
Slavia Prague v Leicester | Thursday 18th February 2021, 17:55 | BT Sport
At first glance I was surprised to see Leicester odds against to win in Prague on Thursday night but seeing that their opponents have won 16 and drawn three of their domestic fixtures and also beat Nice in both matches in the group stages – as well as beating Bayer Leverkusen in their home game – has made me think otherwise.
Slavia Prague’s victories over Nice were impressive but the 1-0 victory over Leverkusen did come against a side who had 10 men for 68 minutes, with the winner coming in the 80th minute. Despite the extra man, Slavia did not dominate possession (they had 51% of the ball in that game) so that victory does not overly concern me.
Leicester reached the last 32 of this competition after winning their group but it was against fairly mediocre opposition. They managed 13 points and 14 goals from their six games and didn’t tend to deviate too much from the side you see in the Premier League. Harvey Barnes, for example, started four of their six matches and the Foxes winger scored in three of those.
Barnes is 7/1 to score first and I can see why many would fancy that but I prefer not to put all my eggs in one basket and will take the 27/10 with Unibet on him in the anytime market. He has scored late goals against Liverpool and Southampton in recent weeks, which makes me keen to keep the anytime market open for the speedster.
I will also take the 11/4 with Bet365 on The Foxes to win by a single goal. I don’t expect them to overrun their opponents here and their only away victory in the group stages came in this manner. I did consider the 0-1 and 1-2 scorelines but will keep it simple and take a single goal margin of victory for the away side.
Best Bets
Slavia Prague vs Leicester – Harvey Barnes to score anytime (27/10 Unibet)
Slavia Prague vs Leicester – Leicester to win by a single goal (11/4 Bet365)
