Europa League betting tips: Thursday's preview

Recommended bets: Europa League

1pt double Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score in a Man Utd win & Lukasz Teodorczuk to score in an Anderlecht win at 3.36/1 - both strikers in the goals & playing for teams who look well set for home victories

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Zlatan Ibrahimovic remains suspended domestically but that means he’ll be champing at the bit ahead of Manchester United’s Europa League clash with Rostov on Thursday night.

The Swede’s thirst for football – and most importantly goals – is well known and having been forced to miss Monday’s FA Cup defeat at Chelsea, he’ll be straight back in for this one.

Ibrahimovic has already scored in two of the three home games he’s played in this competition with the team’s record being played four, won four, scored 12, conceded one.

There is little reason to believe that Rostov will stop that sequence.

They’ve failed to win in their last five European games on the road and conceded at least twice in all three of their Champions League away games before dropping into this competition.

Form hardly brings any respite with just two of their last eight matches won, while last week’s first leg proved damaging in more ways than the fact that it ended 1-1.

Aleksandr Gatskan and Timofei Kalachev picked up bookings which mean they are suspended for the return at Old Trafford, while Vladimir Granat broke his collarbone in the contest.

United have their own issues in the sense that both Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial are out due to injury but both have been bit-part players of late and United’s squad is considerably deeper than their Russian foes’.

As well as Ibrahimovic, Ander Herrera is available for this one despite a domestic ban, while first-choice defender Eric Bailly, who missed the first leg due to suspension, is also eligible for this game.

Ibrahimovic and Bailly should certainly freshen up a side which performed admirably with 10 men for the majority of the match at Stamford Bridge and then had to endure a late-night bus trip home.

Their early-hours arrival back in Manchester was far from ideal and is a potential worry here but Jose Mourinho seems sure to make a few changes despite the fact that the Europa League is beginning to look more and more like United’s best chance of securing a Champions League spot for the 2017/18 campaign.

With four of the top six still to play in the Premier League and ground to make up on those above them, United face a tough run-in and so focus must remain firmly on this competition – it won’t be sacrificed now it would seem.

As touched upon, the bet I like the look of is for Ibrahimovic to find the target - he looked deadly in the EFL Cup final when scoring twice and netted a hat-trick against St Etienne at Old Trafford in the last round.

With United looking firm favourites against weakened opponents, backing him to score in a home win makes perfect sense at 10/11.

I’m actually going to make him half of a ‘wincast’ double alongside another reliable striker in the shape of Anderlecht’s Lukasz Teodorczuk.

The Polish star helped deliver us some profits back in the group stage during which he bagged five goals and while he’s slowed down a bit since his autumn exploits – injury and suspension disruptions not helping – he’s still managed to score 28 goals in 40 appearances for his club this season (two more than Ibrahimovic).

The signs are that form is returning too with two netted in his three games since a return from a muscle problem.

Like United, the Belgian side look to have done the hard work in this tie already, having won 1-0 away to APOEL Nicosia last week, inflicting the Cypriots’ first home defeat of the campaign.

APOEL have been much more vulnerable on their travels and they’ve now lost four of their last eight away from home.

At European level they’ve lost Champions League qualifiers in Rosenborg and Copenhagen, while they only drew against Welsh minnows The New Saints; in this competition, they were beaten away to Young Boys and Astana in the group stage, as well as by Athletic Bilbao in the last round.

They admittedly did well to turn the latter tie around but there are no home comforts to turn to this time and Anderlecht’s home record offers few crumbs too. They’ve won four of five at home in this competition so far, scoring 16 goals in the process.

While Pieros Sotiriou, one of the stars of the win over Bilbao, returns for this one, the absence of the defensively-minded Nuno Morais is perhaps of greater consequence given that APOEL seem likely to spend much of the game on the back foot.

Teodorczuk is highly likely to be involved if, as expected, Anderlecht do dominate and I’m perfectly happy to add him to the wincast double, one which pays close to 7/2.

Those getting a little greedy could also add Besiktas' Vincent Aboubakar to make it a wincast treble - he's netted five in six for the Turks since his return from the Africa Cup of Nations - and is playing for a team odds-on to beat Olympiakos.

That puts the price up to north of 14/1. It's tempting - a trixie could also be worthy of consideration - but I'll stick with the shorter price.

Posted at 1245 GMT on 15/03/17.

Where to watch on TV: BT Sport