Fenerbahce vs Anderlecht Predictions

Turkish side Fenerbahce find themselves five points behind runaway Group D leaders Dinamo Zagreb, and after they could only manage a draw in Belgium, the hosts will be hoping to resume winning ways when they welcome Anderlecht to Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium on Thursday evening. The visitors, who’re currently bottom of the pile with just a single point, need to win to keep their hopes of qualifying for the knockouts alive.

When they lost by four goals to one away at Dinamo Zagreb on match-day one, Fenerbahce got their Group D campaign off to rotten start, though they’ve reacted well since then and have put themselves in an acceptable position. Their home win against Trnava was routine, while their performance when drawing 2-2 away against Thursday’s opponents a fortnight ago was encouraging.

Offensively, the Turkish side look strong, as they’re averaging 1.72 expected goals for, though they do look vulnerable at the back, as the fact that they’re giving up an average of 1.45 expected goals suggests. Anderlecht didn’t exactly find it hard to breach Phillip Cocu’s men in the reverse fixture, so it’s not overly tough to envisage the hosts needing a fair few goals to come out on top on Thursday.

Much like the hosts, Anderlecht have struggled at the back. The Belgians are giving up 1.4 expected goals on average, while they’re yet to keep a clean sheet. More alarmingly, Hein Vanhaezebrouck’s men are without a win in Group D, while they looked very poor offensively in their first two matches. Fortunately, they did far better in that respect against the Turks last time out, so they ought to go to Turkey with goals in mind.

From a betting point of view, it’s very easy to fancy a repeat of the reverse fixture. On that occasion, both teams made reasonably light work of both creating chances and scoring goals, and with neither likely to favour a defensive approach on Thursday, it would be somewhat surprising if there was a shortage of goals. ‘Over 2.5 Goals & Both Teams to Score’ gets the nod.