Standard Liege vs Eintracht Frankfurt Predictions

St. Liege welcome Frankfurt to Stade Maurice Desfrasne on Thursday evening looking to double their points tally. The visitors know a win would essentially assure them of a place in the top two.

After a pleasing win on MD1, beating Guimaraes 2-0 at this venue, St. Liege have taken a few steps in the wrong direction. They were convincingly beaten at Emirates Stadium, while they were unable to get anything from the reverse of this fixture, losing 2-1.

The main problem for St. Liege in this competition has been a lack of offensive quality. Not only have Thursday’s hosts scored just three goals, they’ve seemingly found it tough to create chances. St. Liege have generally been unable to forge regular scoring opportunities in games, while they’re yet to register more than two shots on target in a Group F game. Unless they improve offensively in the next three matches, starting here, they’ve got next to no chance of gracing the last-32 with their presence.

Luckily for Thursday’s hosts, Frankfurt have also found it difficult to be at their offensive best in the Europa League this term. The Germans have scored just three goals in three games, while their weakest effort in terms of creativity came away from home, beating Guimaraes by a single goal on MD2.

If we were to simply glance at the pre-match betting ahead of this match, goals would seem likely when this pair face off at Stade Maurice Dufrasne on Thursday evening, especially since they shared three goals a fortnight ago. However, digging deeper, it’s easy to feel there’s a greater chance of a low-scoring game than the early betting would have us believe. On this basis, both ‘Under 2.5 Goals’ and ‘Both Teams to Score – NO’ stand out.

Goals have been relatively hard to come by for both St. Liege and Frankfurt in Group I, while the Belgian side delivered their best defensive performance when playing at this venue on MD1. Moreover, when Frankfurt played away from home on MD2, they adopted a less cavalier approach, which allowed them to keep things tight; this also prevented them from being as effective in the final third. All things considered, the evidence points more towards a low-scoring game than the current odds suggest and thus the above selections offer punters a few slices of potential value.