Red Bull Salzburg vs Napoli Predictions

With just one point separating the teams in first and third, Champions League Group E already has a decidedly open look to it, and that in turn makes Red Bull Salzburg’s meeting with Napoli this week a potentially pivotal clash.

The Austrian champions have been excellent value in the entertainment stakes in Europe’s top club competition so far, hitting a combined nine goals in their win against Genk and their spirited defeat at Anfield.

RB Salzburg have a team that looks packed to bursting with attacking talent, and with players like Sekou Koita, Hwang Hee-Chan, Takumi Minamino, Patson Daka and Erling Braut Håland in their ranks, they will always score plenty of goals.

Salzburg’s chance-creation and goal-scoring powers are particularly potent at the Red Bull Arena, where they have notched an incredible 36 goals in their last seven competitive matches.

That breaks down to an average of 5.14 goals per 90 minutes, and that average climbs to an even loftier 6.14 goals per game when you include RB Salzburg’s opponents’ goals.

With figures like that, it’s easy to see why we expect plenty of goalmouth action in Austria on Wednesday.

Over 2.5 goals were registered and both teams scored in 80% of Red Bull Salzburg’s last ten matches in all competitions, and we expect that percentage to be enhanced further this week.

Inside that sequence, RB’s two Champions League group matches to date returned an eye-watering 16 goals, and we think their penchant for over-committing in attack will result in another entertaining, high scoring encounter on Wednesday.

We do however, think that Jesse Marsch’s men are capable of springing another Champions League surprise this week.

Serie A giants Napoli make the short hop north from Naples to Salzburg as Group E leaders, having taken four points from two fixtures against Liverpool and Genk, though the Partenopei will be bracing themselves for a tough evening in Austria.

Even though they are incredibly strong in Champions League games on their own patch, Napoli’s form and results tend to fall of a cliff once they take to the road, and the Italians are without a win in any of their last seven UCL away contests since 2017.

We believe Red Bull Salzburg can take advantage of their visitor’s fragility on their travels, and we’ve backed them to win 3-2 in our correct score prediction for Wednesday’s clash.