Basel vs Saint-Etienne Betting Tips & Predictions

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Basel

St Etienne

The first leg of this tie was one of the more entertaining matches of football in this round. A 9^th minute goal for Saint-Etienne set the hosts up for a good evening, but they were denied the chance to go into half time 2-0 up with a 44^th minute goal from Walter Samuel. A penalty from Marc Janko levelled the scores ten minutes after half-time but Saint-Etienne replied with Jean Bahebeck just five minutes after he entered the fray.

This isn’t really a bad result for either team. Saint-Etienne travel to Switzerland with a lead to defend but Basel will be buoyed by their two away goals in France. Add this to the impressive scoring record that both teams have built up and we could be in for a very entertaining match on Thursday.

Reasons for Betting Tips

Basel have been scoring a fair few goals recently and their performance at Saint-Etienne proved that they could do it outside of their domestic matches as well. They followed the match in France with a 5-1 thrashing of Vaduz, taking their tally of goals to 18 in their last five matches.

Saint-Etienne’s faltering defence should provide the hosts with plenty of opportunities too. The visitors haven’t kept a clean sheet in five matches, but they themselves haven’t failed to score since playing PSG at the end of January.

Saint-Etienne know that it will be very difficult to contain Basel for 90 minutes, and with the Swiss side having two away goals under their belts I think we could see Saint-Etienne try and attack a bit on Thursday. This makes three or more goals look likely to me, and odds of 4/5 are very good value.

Recent Form

All competitions; most recent first.

Basel: WLWWWLD

Saint-Etienne: DWDWWWL

Head to Head

The meeting last weekend was the first time these two sides have played against each other.

Statistics

82% of Basel’s home matches this season have ended with Over 2.5 Goals scored in them.

Team News

Basel – Centre forward Andraz Sporar and left winger Jean-Paul Boetius have both picked up fairly serious injuries in the last few days. The former will be out for the rest of the season, with the latter set to return at the end of March.

Saint-Etienne – Striker Robert Beric won’t appear again this season following his cruciate ligament injury in November. Defenders Pierre Polomant, Francois Clerc, and Loic Perrin are also set to miss out alongside midfield duo Jeremy Clement and Bejamin Corgnet.