RB Leipzig vs CS U Craiova Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

The Europa League group stage is getting slightly closer now for the teams involved in the lengthy qualifying format. Bundesliga outfit RB Leipzig are one of the sides that will be expected to make it there and they start as firm favourites ahead of this Thursday’s 1st Leg against Universitatea Craiova of Romania.

RB Leipzig reached this stage having come through a tie against Hacken of Sweden in the last round. A 4-0 home win in the 1st Leg effectively took all the pressure off the return clash and they will be hoping for a repeat here. The Germans had a good run in this competition last year, progressing to the Quarter-Finals, having dropped out of the Champions League and they should be well capable of winning another knockout tie here.

Universitatea Craiova are the Romanian Cup winners from last term and they also finished 3rd in their domestic league so they had a very good overall season, particularly given they were only reformed five years ago. This will be their 43rd match in this competition and they do boast a win ratio of nearly 50% but they won’t have started many games as such firm underdogs.

We are likely to see the visitors come and park the bus here. They are naturally quite a cautious side and while they would love to nick a goal on the break, their priority may well be merely trying to stay in the tie ahead of next week’s 2nd Leg. They received a bye to this stage but again have a tough draw, as was the case last term when they fell in the 2nd Qualifying Round against Italian giants Milan.

They were reasonably competitive in that tie, losing only 1-0 at home and 2-0 away and should provide Leipzig with a tougher test than the one they faced in Hacken a fortnight ago. However it’s hard to see the visitors scoring. They’ve failed to net in 3 of their 4 competitive matches this term and while they’ve only conceded 4 goals, they will be very disappointed to be still waiting for their first win of the new campaign.

8 of their last 9 competitive matches have produced under 3.5 goals in total and while Leipzig tend to be involved in higher scoring clashes, at least at the back end of last term, they will look to play this smart and avoid conceding an away goal that could give the Romanians a glimmer of hope. They’ve won 5 of their last 7 competitive home games and all of their last 3 on their own patch in this competition and should certainly improve both those stats here.

Overall backing RB Leipzig & Under 3.5 Goals looks a decent punt.