Altach vs Belenenses Betting Tips

There appears to be something about Altach and Portuguese teams in this season’s Europa League competition. They were drawn against Guimaraes in the previous round and handled themselves comfortably winning the tie 6-2 on aggregate. Now they face another Primeira Liga opponent.

Most people have heard of Salzburg, some might know Rapid Wien, but Altach’s history is possibly less established. They finished third in the Austrian Bundesliga last season after earning promotion in 2013-14. This is their first appearance in a European football competition and they seemed to have liked it so far.

However, their form in the Bundesliga has not been good, they’ve lost four and won just one of their opening five games. They start as favourites for this game, as much based upon home field advantage and their performance in the first round of the Europa League.

Belenenses finished sixth in the Primeira Liga in 2014-15. They were a side that didn’t score a lot, but didn’t concede a lot either. It’s difficult to know how best to evaluate them in 2015-16 after they drew their opening game of the season 3-3 in a classic contest with Rio Ave. A home win in the first leg was enough to see them past Swedish side IFK Goteborg in the previous round of this competition.

Sturgeon, Pinto, Dalcio and Nunes are just a handful of the club’s high quality young players, but it’s difficult to assess where their respective development levels are at right now. They last appeared in the UEFA Cup in 2007-08, when they had the misfortune of ending up as cannon fodder for Bayern Munich after qualifying for the opening round.

We’re expecting a relatively open game in this first leg and our betting tips reflect that. We suspect that Belenenses might quietly be a dark horse in the Primeira Liga this season and while Altach impressed in the opening round of this competition, there is some evidence from their league form that the club’s impressive finish last season might not be replicable.