Sheriff Tiraspol vs Nice Predictions

• Nice have won only two of their last 14 European away games
• Sheriff have avoided defeat in 27 of their last 35 home games in all competitions
• Both teams have scored in five of Nice’s last six Europa Conference League matches

Sheriff may handcuff useful Nice side

No Moldovan side has ever reached the last-16 of a European competition before and having played a mammoth 17 games to reach this stage, Sheriff should have the resolve to dig in and frustrate Nice.

Roberto Bordin’s men lost the first leg of their Europa League Conference playoff round tie against Partizan Belgrade, but that was their first competitive fixture after the winter break and they may have been a little rusty

They turned the tie around with a 3-1 win in Serbia and now boast enough European experience to think they can hold Nice at bay in what is liable to be a hostile environment.

Nice will need to get nasty to succeed

Sheriff may have been handily beaten by the likes of Real Sociedad and Manchester United in the Europa League group stages, but they tend to be strong at home and a score draw makes more appeal than backing a Nice side with a poor away record in Europe at odds-on.

Nice may still be unbeaten since Didier Digard took charge in mid-January, meaning they are unlikely to slip up in Moldova, but they’ve won only two of their last 14 European away games and are tough to trust, dropping points at home to relegation-threatened Auxerre at the weekend in Ligue 1.

Throw into the mix the failure to keep a clean sheet in ten of their last 12 European matches and Sheriff could keep themselves in the tie ahead of the return leg in France.