Astra vs West Ham predictions, betting tips & match preview

Astra have been given a place in the Europa League play-off round after losing in the 3rd qualifying round of the Champions League to Danish side FC Copenhagen. Astra managed a 1-1 draw at home before losing 3-0 in the away leg. They won the league last season which gave them their place in the 3rd qualifying round for the Champions League.

West Ham will likely be fielding a similar side to the one that lost to Chelsea on Monday, star player Dimitri Payet didn’t travel with the team. With the fixture congestion they may be forced to rest one or two players, with Ogbonna likely returning to the side as well after an injury. Their side isn’t really any stronger than the side that played in the 2nd leg of last years qualifier, where they only managed a 2-2 draw at home so Astra will fancy themselves this time.

Astra haven’t had a great start to the season, with 1 win, 1 draw and 2 losses in their 4 games, but the win came in their most recent game, which was a comfortable 3-1 win against Timisoara. They will hope to take the confidence from that win into this game and will expect a result.

Astra managed to overcome West Ham last year in this competition with a win at home and you can expect them to put up a similar performance again. They are without their star striker due to injury but still have plenty of goals in their team, especially from their defence. We can’t see them losing this fixture, so Astra +0.5 Asian Handicap at 2.100 looks great value. We’re expecting a close game, and a scoreline of 1-1 looks fair at 6/1.