Europa vs AIK Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Gibraltar saw their status in club continental football increase in standing immeasurably last week. First, Lincoln Red Imps shockingly beat Scottish giants Celtic in the Champions League, and then Europa fought hard to keep AIK at bay for the majority of the match.

Unfortunately for the visiting Europa they just couldn’t manage to get a result from the match, with an 89th minute goal giving AIK the first leg victory. Not many could argue that AIK didn’t deserve it as they dominated possession and had 20 shots on the Europa goal, compared to Europa’s three efforts at the other end. It will be incredibly difficult for Europa to overturn this deficit though considering the gulf in class between the teams, but it’s far from an impossibility.

This result did make it four defeats in Europa’s last five matches though, and in the Europa League they have lost two of their three home matches. Their sole European victory was a 2-0 win at home to Pyunik at the end of June.

AIK aren’t in the best of form though. They have only won three of their last eight matches in all competitions, although they are currently on a 13 match unbeaten streak which illustrates their difficulty to beat.

Away from home they are actually playing better than they are at home. They are unbeaten in six away days in all competitions and have won four of them, including the 2-0 win over Bala Town in the Europa League 1st Qualifying Round that got them to this stage.

Considering the dominance of AIK in the first leg of this tie I can’t really see Europa getting anything from this game. AIK had the chances to completely finish off the tie but just couldn’t find their shooting boots. If they find them on Thursday it could result in the landslide victory we all expected, so my prediction is for an AIK -1.0, -1.5 Asian Handicap Win at 1.900 to go alongside a 3-0 correct score prediction at 17/2.