FK Ventspils vs Bordeaux Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Latvia is not widely recognised for it’s club football, though Ventspils, who scored five goals at home during the last round, will be hoping to change that when they take on Bordeaux on Thursday evening. Having got the better of Albanian opposition in the previous round, scoring a total of eight goals across two legs, Jurģis Pučinskis’ men may be feeling confident, though beating a team of Bordeaux’s calibre is going to be tough, especially across two legs.

Having disappointingly failed to make it through the qualification process last season, losing on away goals to Videoton of Hungary, Bordeaux will be looking to make amends this time around. This match will be the Ligue 1 side’s first taste of competitive action this season, though considering they’re facing opposition who are inferior on paper, they ought to fancy their chances of going through.

During the last round, Ventspils made light work of beating Albanian side Luftëtari Gjirokastër, though the 5-0 score-line was a bit misleading. On that occasion, though Ventspils deserved to come out on top, as they were the team who offered more quality, it’s not as if they dominated from start to finish. The Latvians had a lot less possession of the ball, while they ended the game having made far less scoring attempts. It was simply a case of them taking the bulk of their chances, scoring with each of their five shots on target, whereas their opponents were wasteful. What’s more, when they conceded three in the second leg, defensive frailties were very much exposed.

Given the performance of Thursday’s hosts during the last round, it’s easy to feel that a team of Bordeaux’s quality will have more than enough in the locker to negotiate safe passage through to the next round. Having said that, this will be the first time that the French side have tasted competitive football this season, so they could be forgiven for not operating at full capacity.

As they did against Luftëtari at home, Ventspils will sit back and look to hit on the counter, though they’re unlikely to get anywhere near as much forward joy on this occasion. The visitors are likely to dominate possession and they’ll be on top throughout, though with a home leg to come, Gus Poyet’s men may not be overly bothered about going all out for a high-scoring win.

In addition, though they ought to have the quality to get a positive result in Latvia on Thursday evening, Bordeaux come into this match having struggled to score lots of goals when playing away from home in this competition previously. In fact, they’ve scored more than once in none of their last ten away matches in the Europa League. Moreover, Ventspils have only conceded one goal in their last seven home UEL fixtures.

A disparity in quality is expected to be evident on Thursday and it is indeed the visitors who ought to have enough about them to get the job done ahead of the return leg, though they might not run away with proceedings. At the prices, backing ‘Bordeaux to Win & Under 3.5 Goals’ stands out.