Townsend to help Tottenham on their way in Europa League

After reaching the quarter-finals last season Tottenham will hope to go two steps better and make the final on May 14, 2014. The road to the Juvenuts Stadium in Turin is long though and first up for the North London side is a play-off with Dinamo Tbilisi of Georgia. Spurs are the 8/15 (BETVICTOR/paddy Power/CORAL) favourites to win the game though they have won just one of their last nine away in this competition and that came away to Shamrock. Tottenham though did draw five of their last six away from home and they will be happy with that result again which is available at 17/5 (BETVICTOR).

Tbilisi won the Georgian championship last season and are in this competition after losing 3-1 on aggregate to Steaua Bucharest in Champions League qualification. The Georgian side are unbeaten in their last nine games at home in this competition and you can get 13/2 (STAN JAMES) that they win this game or 8/1 (BWIN/BETVICTOR) to qualify.

The only two previous clashes between these sides came in 1973 with Tottenham winning the first leg 5-1 in England before a 1-1 draw in Georgia. Tbilsi have played three times at home against English opponents winning one, drawing one, losing one , while those games in the 70s were the only times Tottenham have faced Georgian opposition.

Roberto Soldado is a 21/20 (BETVICTOR) chance in the anytime goalscorer market and he grabbed four in the Champions League last season for Valencia. Jermain Defoe though could be more likely to start and he is 7/5 (paddy Power) to score anytime while Emmanuel Adebayor is a 7/4 (betfred) chance. The value is Andros Townsend at 5/1 (CORAL) as the young winger is likely to be handed a chance to impress in a much changed side.

For Tbilisi their man scoring threat is Xisco who grabbed 22 goals in the league last season and odds of 4/1 (bet365) on the Spaniard to score anytime look generous.

Swansea who are at home to Petrolul Ploiesti who are managed by a player who used to play under Michael Laudrup, former Getafe right-back Cosmin Contra.

The Romania side are unbeaten in their last 22 domestic league games and shocked Dutch side Vitesse in the last round and they are 9/1 (GENERAL) for the victory while a draw is 15/4 (bet365/BETVICTOR). Swansea are as short as 2/5 (paddy Power/ladbrokes) for victory as they look to do what they did in the last round in putting the game out of reach for their opponents.

I think some value can be had in taking the game to go under 2.5 goals, the Romanians will come and try to keep it tight while Swansea manager Michael Laudrup spoke recently about making it a priority that his side are tighter at the back. bet365 and BETVICTOR have under 2.5 goals available at evens which looks the call.

Of the numerous other games that evening it might be worth taking on Eintracht Frankfurt after their slow start to the German domestic season. They lost 6-1 to Hertha Berlin on the opening weekend before an excuseable 1-0 loss to Bayern the following week. They face a tough trip to Azerbaijan for the first leg against FC Karabakh who have lost just one of their last 13 home games in this competition and can count Braga and Bruges among their victims. Take the 6/5 (bet365) Karabakh and the draw in the double chance market

BEST OF THE BETS

GOLD: FC Karabakh and the draw in double chance , 6/5 (bet365)
SILVER: Andros Townsend to score anytime, 5/1 (CORAL)
BRONZE: Xisco to score anytime, 4/1 (BET365)

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22/08/2013     © Frixo 2026