Ajax besting Celtic forms foundation for 20/1 Europa acca
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For some the start of the Europa League means awkward mid-week kickoff times, another unwanted reason to have to tune in to BT Sport and watching a load of teams few people have ever heard of.
But for others, the football hipsters of the world for example, it’s a chance to sample a charming selection of footballing tapas, as sides from Azerbaijan, Albania and Cyprus all try to claim a scalp in the competition.
For Ladbrokes News, the return of the Europa League is just another chance to land fruitful accumulator punts, with the below 20/1 fivefold kicking things off:
Two losses in the last three games for Celtic, against elevated opposition in the form of Malmo in the Champions League and Aberdeen in the Ladbrokes Premiership, indicate that the Bhoys aren’t quite at peak powers.
That form will result in an away loss against Dutch giants Ajax, who have gone unbeaten since exiting the Champions League at the qualifying stages, winning five and drawing two.
The panic-stricken season that was to be Jurgen Klopp’s last in charge of the German side has been replaced by Thomas Tuchel’s reign of wins this term.
Dortmund have won every game they have played in the campaign so far, scoring goals for fun and overcoming a one-goal handicap in seven of their nine outings.
Krasnodar, on the other hand, have one just once in the last four games.
Brentford’s Danish half sister put Southampton out of this competition ahead of the group phase, so have to be respected, but have the form to back up their reputation as relative giant killers.
Just one defeat in 14 games this term is quite a record, even if their matches provide little thrill – 12 of them have contained under 2.5 goals.
Things aren’t so rosy for their Polish opponents, who have won just twice in the last seven.
A fast start for the Austrian hosts has quickly morphed in to a sticky patch of form. After going unbeaten in seven to open the campaign, Vienna are now winless in three and have triumphed once in the past six.
Villarreal, while still working through the gears of the late-starting Spanish season, are unbeaten nonetheless.
The Belarusian league is well over halfway through and Minsk find themselves off the pace at the top having failed to win six of their 10 away games.
They travel to the Czech Republic to face a Plzen side that are enjoying a four-game winning streak and have scored at least two goals in five of their six home games, of which they have won four.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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