17:45 Thursday

Sheriff Tiraspol vs Man United – Man United to win to nil 

Sheriff Tiraspol were the unlikely team in the Champions League last year and surprisingly finished third in their group after causing upsets, including victory at the Bernabeu. They failed to qualify for this year’s Champions League after being knocked out of the third round by Viktoria Plzen. They are the current Moldovan Champions, and they got their title defence off to a good start with five wins in their first seven this year.  

After a shaky start to the league, ten Hag has finally got his United side performing. In the league they have won four on the bounce and kept two clean sheets along the way. They were beaten in the Europa League last week by Real Sociedad and the United boss will be looking for a response. They have a far superior squad to their hosts and come into this game in good form. We think they should win this one easily and keep a clean sheet along the way.  

19:00 Thursday

Rennes vs Fenerbahce – Rennes & BTTS  

Rennes and Fenerbahce have gotten their 2022/23 campaigns off to similar starts with three wins in their opening games. Rennes currently sit 6th in the league with two losses to their name, whilst Fenerbahce sit 7th with one loss to their name. Since losing their opening game of the season at home, Rennes remain unbeaten at Roazhon Park and most recently beat Auxerre 5-0 at the weekend and because of their home form we think they will just about edge this one.  

However, Fenerbahce won’t go down without a fight and have been clinical going forward this season. They have only gone one game without scoring this year and have scored the most goals in the league this year. We think the smart play here is Rennes to win and both teams to score.  

20:00 Thursday

Roma vs HJK Helsinki – Roma & Under 3.5 Goals  

Jose Mourinho’s Roma welcome a Helsinki team who are about to retain their league title. The Finnish side sit top of the league and are about to enter the Championship round in good form. Unfortunately, they couldn’t bring this form into the Europa League last week as they were comfortably beaten 2-0 at home by Real Betis. They were only able to create one chance on target the whole of that game and we expect more of the same when they visit the Stadio Olimpico. 

Jose Mourinho is well known for playing with a defensive style and we expect the finish to struggle to create chances against such a well drilled side. The Conference League champions have had a steady start to their season, only losing once but have struggled to score.

Out of the seven competitive games they’ve played this season, the score line has only gone above three on one occasion. We expect this trend to continue Thursday evening. Although we think Roma should win pretty easily, the score line should stay down.