Schalke vs Asteras Tripolis Betting Tips

Having narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Champions League last season, Schalke have made a flying start to this one and appear to be a team with a point to prove. They showed in flashes last season, most notably in that thrilling game at the Bernabeu that they can cut it with Europe’s elite on their day and they will be desperate to return to Europe’s top table next season.

In the meantime a lengthy run in the Europa League would be nice and they were in mood for prisoners when they visited Cyprus to play APOEL in their opening group game. A convincing 3-0 win courtesy of two goals from Klaas Jan Huntelaar suggest that they are the class act in this group and they’ll be keen to secure qualification as soon as possible.

With home advantage, if anything this should be an easier game and having won 5 matches on the spin coming into it, they should have no problems making that 6. Asteras have made a shaky start to the season in Greece with only 7 points coming from their opening 5 matches.

They drew 1-1 at home to Sparta Prague in their opening group game but in reality they will be fighting for at best 2nd place in this group and will be hopeful that Schalke have already qualified by the time they visit Greece in December. The Germans can take a step in that direction here and have been playing some really good football at both ends. On their day they are capable of scoring plenty of goals so backing Schalke with a -2.0 Asian handicap at 2.25 seems like a sensible course of action here.

Asteras have never won away in the Europa League and were battered 5-1 in their toughest away game so far at Tottenham in the group stage last season. Another heavy defeat could be on the cards on Thursday so consider backing Schalke to win 4-0 at 10/1.