Krasnodar vs Salzburg Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Krasnodar are on the verge of qualification to the Europa League knockout stages and know that a win on Thursday will all but seal that goal. They have managed six points from their opening four games, leaving them six points behind Schalke at the top of the table but three ahead of both Salzburg and Nice below them.

Fortunately for them they managed to break out of a poor three match winless streak on Sunday with a 3-0 win over Ural. This followed on from back to back domestic draws either side of a 2-0 loss to Schalke in the Europa League.

Krasnodar’s European campaign is obviously taking a lot out of the players though, because they’re lagging behind in 5th position in the Russian Premier League.

In goalscoring terms there are a number of threats for Salzburg to deal with. Joaozinho may only have one league goal this season but he’s bagged five in the Europa League, whilst Fedor Smolov has notched 12 in both competitions combined to make him the top scorer. He’s definitely the main man for our goalscorer predictions at 10/11 to score anytime.

This is especially true because of Salzburg’s key absentees. Jonatan Soriano and Hwang Hee-Chan have scored 12 goals in all competitions between them and are Salzburg’s only two scorers in the Europa League. Both are sidelined for this one, as is fellow attacker Wanderson to leave them dreadfully short up front.

Salzburg did manage to win without those two players against Rapid Vienna on Sunday, but away from home in Europe it will be a lot harder to break the opposiiton down.

This gives Krasnodar a big advantage where our overall predictions are concerned. They have proven to be the better side in Europe so far and have the majority of their key players ready to play. Salzburg’s absences up front could prove to be the deciding factor, and I’m backing a Krasnodar Win at 19/20 along with a 2-0 correct score prediction at 17/2.