French side Marseille travel to Slovenia to take on NK Domzale in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League Play-Off round. Marseille have a better European pedigree and are a bigger club, so it’s no surprise to see them favourites for the victory here
NK Domzale
Slovenian cup winners Domzale started their Europa League campaign back on 29th June, with the first leg of the first qualifying round against Flora. That match ended in a 2-0 victory, and they finished the job in Estonia with a 3-2 win. Next up was Valur in the second qualifying round, and a 2-1 away win was followed by a 3-2 victory at home to advance to the third qualifying round.
They suffered a 1-0 defeat away at Freiburg in Germany but turned it around with a 2-0 win in the second leg to leave themselves 180 minutes away from their first ever appearance in the group stages of a European competition. In the league, Domzale lost their opening game but have bounced back with two wins and two draws from the next four.
Marseille
Marseille have followed a brilliant pre-season, in which they won six of seven warm-up matches, with a great start to the season. Valere Germain netted a hat-trick in his competitive debut in the first leg of the third qualifying round to give the French side a 4-2 win over Oostende, and a superb goalkeeping performance from Steve Mandanda earned them a 0-0 away draw to advance to the next round.
Mandanda’s, and Marseille’s, form has continued into the domestic league season. A 3-0 win at home to Dijon kicked off their campaign in style, and that was followed by a 1-0 victory away at Nantes in game two. They are playing some fantastic football and morale is high, so Marseille will fancy their chances of giving themselves the advantage in this tie with a convincing away win. Marseille were once a permanent fixture in European competition but have only appeared in the Europa League once in the past three seasons, reaching the last 16 in 2015/16.
Head to Head
This is the first ever competitive match between these two teams.
Betting Odds and Predictions
Ladbrokes have the French side priced at 9/20, with Domzale at odds of 11/2. The draw is priced at 7/2, which makes it obvious who the bookmakers think will win this match.
To be honest, we also think Marseille will come out of this match with a lead to take into the second leg. However, we do think it will be closer than the betting odds would suggest. Domzale’s main problem here will be finding a way past the stubborn Marseille defence and in-form Mandanda. The French team have kept three clean sheets in their four competitive matches this season and it’s our prediction they will make it four from five here.
Marseille to keep a clean sheet is priced at 11/10, which looks fabulous odds for a team who don’t concede many goals. Also, if we’re thinking Domzale will fail to score, we must also look at the odds for betting ‘NO’ in the Both Teams to Score market. This is priced at 4/5 with Ladbrokes, which would again allow for a decent profit. Marseille to Win to Nil is priced at 7/5 and looks to be a solid bet.
Top Betting Tips
Our top betting tip for this match is Marseille to win, priced at 1/2 with Ladbrokes. That bet is our top tip but it doesn’t provide much value. So, for a chance of making more profit we also tip the French side to keep a clean sheet at odds of 11/10 with the same betting company.