Standard Liege vs Celta Vigo Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

It’s 9 years since Celta Vigo last appeared in European competition so this is a big occasion for the Galicians, who qualified directly for the group phase thanks to a 6th place finish in La Liga last season. However, they don’t exactly approach their return to Europe in the best of shape. The sale of star player Nolito in the summer and failure to adequately replace him looks to have left them short on attacking spark and they’ve never been the most convincing side at the back. They’ve lost all of their opening 3 league games and were hammered 4-0 at home by Atletico Madrid on Saturday, so confidence is likely to be quite low in the Celta camp.

Standard Liege will be hoping to capitalise on that. They’ll be pleased to be back in the Europa League group stage having missed out in the play-off round last year against Molde. They’re in a tough group though which also includes Ajax and Panathinaikos so they’re going to have to play well to get out of it and they might just fancy they can cause an upset here. They’ve made a mixed start to the season in Belgium but have only lost 1 of their opening 6 league games and picked up an excellent 3 points when they beat Genk 2-0 at home at the weekend.

Certainly then Standard will come into this with greater belief. Given the way Celta have started the season and their lack of recent European experience, it’s a bit of a surprise to see the visitors made clear favourites with the bookies here. As well as missing Nolito, Chilean winger Fabian Orellana, their most creative current player, is out with an injury and that gives the Belgians a great chance here. So backing Double Chance – Standard Liege or Draw at 4/6 looks to offer value.