There's 2 games from Holland to look at tonight as the first legs' of the Europa Leage play-offs take place with Heerenveen hosting Feyenoord and Vitesse travelling to Zwolle to take on PEC. The winners of each tie will gain entry into next season's Europa League and will be decided over the course of 2 legs, the first of which are tonight with the returns on Sunday and as it is the Dutch league, I'm hopeful of goals. Here are my previews, predictions and best bets. Netherlands - Europa League Playoff
18:30 Heerenveen vs Feyenoord- Prediction 2.2 Best Bets - BTTS @4/7, BTTS and over 2.5 goals @4/5 Feyenoord were crushed 3.0 by PEC at the weekend to beat my BTTS double and having blown their chance at finishing 3rd, outgoing manager, Fred Rutten has hastened his departure, handing the reigns to fans favourite, Giovanni Van Bronckhorst who was originally destined to take charge at the beginning of next season. Having let me down at the weekend, I am reticent about betting on them again, but I do feel like BTTS is extremely likely here, as reflected in the 1/2 odds. 7 of Heerenveen's last 9 at home saw BTTS with 6 of those games going over 2.5 goals while 7 of their last 8, be it home or away have also gone with BTTS. Feyenoord's record is poorer with just 7 of their away games this season seeing BTTS and I am certainly wary of this side having draw a blank at PEC on the weekend although a 2nd half red card didn't help. There BTTS record has improved in recent months with 4 of their previous away seeing BTTS and having been so solid earlier in the season they have now kept just 1 clean sheet in their last 8 away games. When you consider that they kept clean sheets in 7 of their first 9 away fixtures, it's clear that defensively they are not as strong as they were. The Rotterdam outfit have also scored at least once in 8 of their last 12 on the road and with Heerenveen keeping just 2 clean sheets in their last 9 at home, I'm confident we will see BTTS here. Neither side are in good form though with Feyenoord shipping 7 goals in their last 2 fixtures and without a win in 5, but they will be boosted by their new boss, while Heerenveen have just 1 win in 6, so for me, it's tough to pick a winner but BTTS looks likely with over 2.5 goals also a good possibility. 20:45 PEC Zwolle vs Vitesse - Prediction 2.1 - Best Bets - BTTS @1/2, PEC to win @11/5 Pec Zwolle welcome Vitesse for the 2nd of our play-off matches and once again I fancy goals to be the order of the day. Vitesse are in good form, especially on the road with wins in 6 of their last 8 fixtures with BTTS appearing in 4 of their last 6 away games and you can almost bank on the visitors to score having done so in 14 of their 17 away games but they are leaky at the back and have just 3 clean sheets in 17 away fixtures. PEC'S form is pretty strong too with only 1 defeat in 10 home games and just 2 all season while they have seen BTTS in 7 of their last 11 at home and have scored in 16 out of 17 home games (94%) which would suggest they are pretty likely to score against a Vitesse side that don't often keep clean sheets. This looks a tough one to call, but I think we will see a winner here. PEC have drawn just 3 out of 17 at home and Vitesse just 2 of 17 away so an outright winner looks likely given both sides scoring prowess. I'm going for PEC to just edge it on the night at a big price of 11/5 but of course I prefer the BTTS option with Vitesse strong on the road and considered the favourites for this tie. Bo's Best Bets PEC Zwolle vs Vitesse - BTTS @1/2 PEC to win @11/5 Heerenveen vs Feyenoord- BTTS @4/7 Heerenveen vs Feyenoord - BTTS and over 2.5 @4/5 Comments are closed.
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