Baumit Jablonec vs FC Astana Predictions

Jablonec enter this fixture bottom of their Europa League group after picking up just one point from their opening 2 games. They lost 2-1 away from home against French side Rennes in game week 1, a game in which they held their own until Hatem Ben Arfa netted a 90th minute penalty. They then picked up a 2-2 draw at home to Dynamo Kiev despite going 2-0 down inside 15 minutes. They battled back well scoring in the 33rd and the 91st minute to level the match and pick up their first points in the group.

Astana head into gameweek 3 in much better shape, they sit top of the table with 1 win and 1 draw from their opening 2 games. They started off with a well deserved 2-2 draw away at Ukrainian outfit Dynamo Kiev, scoring in the 90th minute to take a point. They then beat Rennes comfortably 2-0 at home with 64th and 90th minute goals. They are in full control of this group and 2 good results against Jablonec will put them safely into the knock out stages of the competition.

Jablonec aren’t very good in Europe and this is evidenced by their home form in the Europa League. They have won just 2 of the 9 games they have ever played in the competition with wins against Flamurtari and Stromsgodset. This is the first year since 2015 they have been in the Europa League and they currently look off the pace in this group. They have however scored in 7 of their 9 home Europa League home games whilst keeping just 1 clean sheet in that time, a 0-0 draw against Ajax. They are not performing too bad domestically sitting 5th in the Czech league with 22 points from 12 games.

Away from home Astana are very hit and miss in the Europa League. Since 2016 they have played 10 away Europa League games and won just 2, a 1-0 win at Maccabi Tel Aviv and a 1-0 win at a fellow Czech side Slavia Prague. Apart from that they have struggled for results however they have faced some much tougher sides than they will here in Jablonec. Their 2-2 away draw at Dynamo Kiev shows their fighting spirit and we think they will be hard to beat here.

Jablonec have been priced as the favourites here and i can’t quite understand that, although Astana don’t have the best away form in the world they do have a lot of experience in this competition having competed in it regularly. They drew 1-1 and won 1-0 when they last played Czech opposition in the Europa League and feel they are the more likely side to come away with a positive result here. For that reason we are backing Astana double chance with 3 stars. We can see this game being fairly close and feel that Astana will be happy with a draw here as they will expect to beat them at home, for that reason we are also backing the 1-1 draw.