Salzburg vs Schalke Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Salzburg bid farewell to their Europa League hopes last month when they failed to beat Krasnodar, leaving them 3rd in the group and three points adrift of their opponents. Even if they caught them on Thursday they would still lag behind on head to head results, so they are just playing for pride.

The hosts have been a bit inconsistent of late as well, winning three, drawing one, and losing two of their last six matches in all competitions. This, in addition to leaving them out of the Europa League, puts them 3rd in the Austrian Bundesliga behind Sturm Graz and Rheindorf Altach.

Schalke have had no such problems in Europe, with them winning five out of five in the group stages so far and looking forward to the knockout stages. They are in very good form at the moment as well.

They did lose 2-1 to Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig at the weekend but prior to that they had won ten and drawn two of their last 12 games. They remain in a disappointing 8th position in the Bundesliga after a shocking start to the season, but the signs are definitely promising for them.

Both of these sides are in a bit of a striking crisis at the moment though. Salzburg have top scorer Jonatan Soriano missing along with another four attacking players, leaving their top scorer as defender Stefan Lainer.

Meanwhile, Schalke are without Breel Embolo, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar, and Franco Di Santo up front. Their top scorer is now midfielder Nabil Bentaleb, with Ukrainian winger Yevhen Konoplyanka chipping in with two Europa League goals. Backing the winger to score anytime at 3/1 looks good value considering his importance to their attack.

The lack of importance of this match and both teams’ crises up front means that I’m expecting a rather low scoring game. Neither team needs to go all out for the win, so odds of 1/1 for Under 2.5 Goals looks good value. I think Schalke will get the points in the end though so I’m backing a 1-0 correct score predictions at 5/1.