Milsami vs St Etienne Betting Tips

If Milsami win this tie, they will enter unchartered territory as the first Moldovan champions to qualify for the group stage of a European football tournament. It would be a case of succeeding at the first attempt for a club that is less than a decade old and secured their first league title in club history last season.

Few would have anticipated that Milsami would have even reached this stage of the Europa League competition. They’ve already played plenty of European football after surprising most by beat Ludogrets (a Liverpool opponent from last season’s group stages) in the second qualifying round for the Champions League, before suffering a heavy defeat to less well-known Albanian side Skenderbeu Korce.

They’ll now be tested for the first time by a club from one of the big leagues. Moldovan players are not well-known and the form book is difficult to judge.

St Etienne enjoyed a strong 2014-15 season, but they’ve failed to record a victory in the opening two games of their 2015-16 campaign. They’ll undoubtedly have one eye on this weekend’s fixture against Lorient, but it would be dangerous to under-estimate their Thursday night opponents.

Still an away defeat to Toulouse and home draw against Bordeaux (last minute goal denied St Etienne victory) are hardly results that suggest that this talented side don’t have the potential to enjoy another successful season and in theory, this should be a regulation tie.

Complacency could be a young side’s own worst enemy and there’s still a feeling that St Etienne are possibly at their very best when the onus is not on them to attack.

We do feel that there could be an air of unpredictability about this game. Previous European matches have suggested that Milsami are capable of scoring goals and also very capable of breaking down completely. This is a tie where the goals could rack up, either with St Etienne pulling away, or because Milsami have managed to turn it into a competitive game.

Either way, the better than even odds on Goals Over 2.5 makes it a strong bet. Ourselves, we’ll take the established pedigree of the French side to secure a first leg victory and avoid too much tension in next week’s return fixture.