Basel vs Belenenses Betting Tips

The Swiss outfit, who have impressed in the Champions League in recent seasons are perhaps dark-horses to go very far in this competition, perhaps even all the way. They are already 7 points clear at the top of the Swiss League and seem certain to be on course for yet another title, so they can afford to focus more energy on this competition than a lot of the other teams in it.

Belenenses meanwhile are less familiar with mixing it with strong European opposition and this could be another steep learning curve. They made a solid start to the group with a 0-0 draw in Poznan but were hammered 4-0 at home by Fiorentina last time out and they followed that up with a defeat by the same scoreline in the league at Porto.

They were also beaten 6-0 by Benfica earlier in the year and in truth are not even close to the level of Portugal’s ‘big three’ and are probably a little bit out of their depth in the group stages of the Europa League. Even in the Portuguese League they’ve been poor so far and only have 7 points to show from their opening 7 games.

Therefore a Basel side, who are top of the group with maximum points and very strong at St Jakob Park should have no trouble winning this one. They are an attacking side and have netted twice or more in all of their last 9 matches including an excellent 2-1 win away to Fiorentina in their first group game.

At 10/11 they are excellent value to win this game by 2 goals or more and it could well be more given how Belenenses have performed when they’ve come up against top opposition this season.

This should be pretty convincing but Basel will be keen for a clean sheet and don’t need to go working up their goal difference given the dominant position they find themselves in already. Consider backing the Swiss Champions to win 3-0 at 13/2 and move to 9 points at the half-way stage in the group.