Newcastle vs Metalist: Magpies to gain narrow home advantage

Newcastle have improved their fortunes in domestic competition recently, and with a host of new signings at Alan Pardew’s disposal, they tempt at 6/5 to beat Metalist Kharkiv.

In their Ukrainian opposition they face a highly underrated side, and one which conceded only three goals during the group stage of the Europa League this term.

The majority of those goals were shipped on Metalist’s travels though, and so a low-scoring Magpies success may be the best bet in this tie.

The Toon are 7/1 to win 1-0, as they did against Club Brugge in the group stage of the competition this season.

That 7/1 regarding a 1-0 home win won’t be bettered elsewhere, with Ladbrokes best-price on correct score markets in this match.

Alternatively, Alan Pardew’s side can be backed to win a game featuring less than 2.5 goals at 10/3.

For punters feeling that the away side can come away from St. James’s Park with something though, 9/4 looks a fair price regarding a stalemate.

Whilst Newcastle are unbeaten at home in Europe since 2005, they have drawn half of their six Europa League games in this campaign so far.

Vehement supporters of Metalist meanwhile, can have 9/4 about the Ukrainians ending United’s impressive unbeaten home run in Europe.

To do that, they will likely have to quell an early onslaught from their hosts, whose recent improvement in the Premier League has tied in with an increased number of first-half goals.

Indeed, the Toon have found the net five times in the first half of their past four games, making the 10/11 for them to score in the first half look a superb bet.

It is a tempting 21/20 that most of the game’s goals occur during the first period too, and a very appealing 5/2 for United to score most of their goals before the break.

They have notched more goals before the 45 minute mark in three of their last four outings in all competitions.

And it could prove profitable to bet on a Newcastle player to break the deadlock in this match, with Pardew expected to name a strong side at St. James’s Park.

Papiss Cisse is 9/2 favourite to breach Metalist first, but Shola Ameobi could represent value at 11/2 to open the scoring with his third Europa League goal of the season.

All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.