Ilves vs Slavia Sofia Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

The summer without football has not felt quite as long thanks to the excellent World Cup in Russia and before you know it, the domestic campaign will be back up and running again. The first sign of this is the early qualification rounds of UEFA’s Champions League and Europa League. That is exactly what is happening this Thursday and in this preview we look at the UEFA Europa League first qualifying round first leg between Finnish side Ilves Tampere and Bulgarian side Slavia Sovia.

Ilves Tampere are already well into their season and, although things haven’t exactly been going to plan in the Veikkausliiga so far, they should be match fit and sharp heading into this clash. Last season they finished their domestic league in a very credible third place in order to earn this opportunity, but their lack of form in front of goal means that they are placed well down the league and it looks unlikely that they will be able to repeat the trick from last season.

Given that 72% of Ilves’s matches have had under 2.5 goals in total, we do not expect this one to be a goal fest. That belief is only reinforced by the fact that this match represents Slavia Sofia’s second competitive match of the campaign. When you also throw in the fact that the first leg of any tie is usually tight as neither side wants to give it away, then you will start to appreciate why we are going the way we are in this fixture.

Although we do not expect there to be many goals scored, we do think the lack of match sharpness from the visitors will play a key role in this fixture. With this in mind, we think that combining our initial tip of there to be less than 2.5 goals with a home win is an excellent way to boost the return for those willing to trade this off with a higher risk.