Shamrock Rovers vs SK Brann Predictions

After coming away with a draw from the first leg, Shamrock Rovers will be aiming to see off Norweigan side Brann in the second leg of this Europa League tie. These two sides played out a thrilling 2-2 draw when they met last week, which has left Rovers in a great position to finish the tie off and move into the next round. However, they are coming off the back of some poor form at home, so will that see the Irish side blow their chance of returning to the group stage of this competition?

The winners of this tie will likely face off with Cypriot side Apollon in the next round, so there’s a decent prize on offer if they can edge through this game. Shamrock Rovers are in the driving seat thanks to their two away goals, especially as they have been in brilliant form in the league this term. They’ve moved up to second in the table, emerging as the main challengers to Dundalk for the Irish Premier Division title. However, this week the focus is all on the meeting with Brann.

The visitors had their league struggles followed up by their poor first leg result, which shows the trouble they’re currently in. Having slipped down to sixth in the Eliteserien the visitors are set to miss out on European football next season. They’re also likely to miss it next week, as they have failed to win any of their last four games going into this clash. They head to Dublin knowing that they need a win or a very high scoring draw to move into the next round.

That puts the focus on Brann to get forward here, while Shamrock Rovers can take chances on the counter-attack. The Norweigan side have scored in 13 of their last 15 away games in the Europa League, while they’ve got a 100% scoring record on the road in their domestic league this term. They head into this game knowing that a failure to score would knock them out, so we are backing Brann to add to their two goals so far.

However, the visitors have seen 86% of their away league games finish with both teams scoring. They’ve also kept just one clean sheet in their last seven matches in this competition, while Shamrock Rovers are perfectly placed to get forward on the break and score in this home clash. With the visitors leaking far too many goals on the road, Rovers should find the net. That has us backing both teams to score in this game.