Rio Ave vs Jagiellonia Bialystok Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Rio Ave were narrowly beaten in their visit to Poland last week, and they’ll be desperate to turnaround their form ahead of this clash with Jagiellonia on Thursday night. The Portuguese side have a lot of work to do to edge out a rigid Polish outfit, and we fully expect another tense night ahead in this second leg. Can the hosts do just enough to get themselves in to the third round of the Europa League qualifiers, or will the visitors dig their heels and hold on to their first leg lead?

Obviously that doesn’t make this game sound all that exciting, because in truth it probably won’t be. We aren’t expecting these two to share goals on Thursday, especially after the nature of Jagiellonia’s victory. They claimed a 1-0 win to leave Rio Ave in trouble, and now the Polish side are going to be out to protect that lead. After a run of nine games in this competition with just two defeats, the visitors are going to be a tough side to see off.

Rio Ave have been priced up as the favourites for the victory, and they are being tasked with getting forward and making an impact here. We doubt that the visitors will take the risk of pushing for an away goal, and are expecting to see a dogged display from Jagiellonia here. After all, the visitors saw the majority of their domestic trips finish with fewer than three goals scored last season, while most of their goals were scored at home.

That 1-0 loss was the latest low scoring game for Rio Ave in this competition. They’ve now seen under 2.5 in five straight European matches, and in four of their last six at home in the Europa League. They are likely to find it tough to open up and break down the Jagiellonia defence, but the Portuguese outfit were reliant on their home form to get them in to Europe in the first place. Can they make home advantage count to turn this tie around?

While we favour Rio Ave in this game, we think that Jagiellonia are going to make life tough for them. After all, the visitors have recorded five straight away matches in the Europa League which have all been low scoring, with just five goals scored across their last four. We expect the same here, so we’re backing under 2.5 goals in the game, and a 1-0 home victory.