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Besiktas hosts Club Brugge in the second leg of this Europa League Round 16 tie. In the first leg Brugge recorded a hard fought 2-1 victory at home.
Hosts are coming after a convincing 5-1 win over Erciyesspor. The hosts are in a very good place at the moment, leading the Turkish Superliga and coming after that superb qualification vs. Liverpool … they played a good game in Belgium also, leading 1-0 until the 62nd minute and overall matching Brugge in most departments despite playing on the road. At home, Besiktas is a different animal in European matches and will hope to take advantage of that … hosts have 3 wins and 1 draw in 4 matches in Istanbul this Europa League season. Besiktas has a number of injury problems for today: Hutchinson, Koybasi, Milosevic and Sosa are out. Tosun and Zengin are questionable.
Besiktas lineup: Gonen – Kurtulus, Uysal, Gulum, Opare – Ozyakup, Kavlak, Arslan – Tore, Ba, Sahan
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Club Brugge overcame a very difficult period they had in February and are now back to their usual best … 5 wins in the last 5 games in all competitions, including 3-1 over Westerlo a few days ago. They re-gained a 4 point advantage at the top of the league and are in good spirits coming into this match, but will be wary of the threat Besiktas poses at home. Coopman, Engels and Vazquez will not be in Brugge’s lineup today.
Club Brugge lineup: Ryan – Meunier, Duarte, Mechele, De Bock – Simons, De Fauw – Refaelov, Vormer, Bolingoli Mbombo – De Sutter
Both teams have massive derbies coming up in the weekend (Besiktas vs. Fenerbahce and Club Brugge vs. Anderlecht), but at the moment this second leg is their only focus. After watching Besiktas hold their ground in Belgium and how tight that match was, you have to feel the Turkish side will be able to at least push this to overtime at home. Both teams are in very good form, but Besiktas is the better overall, has difference makers like Demba Ba, has better experience (which always counts in Europe) and as a bonus-card they have home court advantage … which should eventually make the difference.
My tip is Besiktas to win, even with the injuries they have I am confident to bet high stakes on them. I also think they will qualify, but the odds are not big enough to warrant the extra-risk. Correct score prediction: Besiktas – Club Brugge 2-0.
Pick: Besiktas
Odds: 1.91 @ Bet365
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 8.19
Event date: 19 March
