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Barry Town vs Cliftonville Predictions

  • 17:30
  • Expired
  • Jenner Park Stadium
Barry Town
Cliftonville

odds when tipped

odds when tipped

Barry Town vs Cliftonville Predictions

While the teams that will be involved in the Europa League proper are only just coming back for pre-season, continental competition has begun for the likes of Barry and Cliftonville, who will go head-to-head in preliminary qualifying.

Playing in Europa League qualifying is not something that Barry Town are used to. In fact, the Welsh outfit have only previously competed in the preliminary round once and that was all the way back in 2000. On that occasion, they lost 5-0 on aggregate against Boavista. Can the current crop of players do better than their predecessors?

Barry enjoyed a pleasing domestic campaign last time around, as they finished in 3rd place, though they didn’t exactly come flying past the line, as they dropped off significantly in the final weeks of the season, winning none of their final three matches, two of which they lost. The fact that they conceded eight goals and scored just twice during those three games doesn’t exactly bode well ahead of a game against a Cliftonville side that is vastly more experienced at this level.

Unlike Barry, as mentioned above, Cliftonville are no strangers to Europa League qualifying. This will be the seventh time since 2008 that the Northern Irish side have attempted to qualify for Europe’s secondary continental competition. Back in 2010, they made it through to the next stage, while they also got further than this in 2016 too, beating Luxembourg’s Differdange 03 before finally losing to AEK Larnaca of Cyrpus.

Last season, Cliftonville failed to play more than two games in UEL qualifying, though they did perform well against Danish side Nordsjaelland, who’re undoubtedly harder to face than Barry. If they can get to within a single goal of holding useful top-level Danish opposition to a draw, then it’s easy to feel upbeat about Cliftonville’s chances of denying Thursday’s Welsh hosts.

In the betting, given that they’re much more experienced at this level, Cliftonville are easy to side with. Against a Barry side that has lost two on the bounce at home and that has no experience of playing in on the continent, the visitors really ought to be slightly shorter in the betting, so ‘Cliftonville Draw No Bet’ stands out as a viable option.

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