HJK vs Betis prediction: EUROPE: Europa League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2022-09-07 16:45.
HJK Helsinki coach Toni Koskela spoke of wanting to draw Manchester United in the UEFA Europa League (UEL) being he’s a personal fan. His wish wasn't granted but he will have the pride of leading a Finnish club in the UEL group stages for just the second time, a feat achieved by HJK themselves in 2014/15. They’ll begin with confidence, safe in the knowledge that a repeat of their third-place finish in that campaign will nowadays see them transferred into the UEFA Europa Conference League.
The Finnish champions have been known to hold their own in this competition, having managed to shut out their opponents in three of their last four UEL games (W3, D1). It would still be a huge shock if they upset the odds here as they’ve managed only five wins across their last 20 European games (excluding qualifiers), including the oddity of recording no draws in that time.
Real Betis manager Manuel Pellegrini has a much richer European pedigree than his counterpart having led both Manchester City and Real Madrid in UEFA competition. As Betis prepares to celebrate its 115th anniversary, Pellegrini will be aiming to continue their unbeaten streak in UEL group openers (W1, D2), and another solid start here would raise hopes of making it out of the group stages for a fourth successive time.
Betis hit a bump last weekend, after a narrow 2-1 loss to Real Madrid halted a three-match winning start to their La Liga campaign. Two of those wins came with clean sheets and Betis may require that defensive resolve here, having conceded 14 goals across their last six away UEL matches, which is unusually high considering they let in just four from their previous nine such games.
Players to watch: Spanish-born HJK striker Bojan Radulović has scored two European goals this season, both times as the second match goal scorer. Meanwhile, Borja Iglesias contributed in each of Betis' last four games (G4, A1) and has seen his last three UEL contributions (G2, A1) come on the road.
Hot stat: Betis have failed to win their last three European matches (D2, L1), but haven’t gone four games without a win since September 1998.