Basel vs Slovan Bratislava prediction: EUROPE: Europa Conference League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2022-10-05 19:00.
Coach Alex Frei joked that Basel are “playing a little worse than at the beginning of the season,” but the manager can surely only be concerned about a run of one clean sheet in seven games, given his side have won eight of their last nine fixtures (L1). There are certainly no problems at the other end of the field, where the Swiss outfit have scored 27 goals over that period of time, netting at least three times in six matches.
One such occasion was in their opening UEFA Europa Conference League (UECL) group game, when they beat Pyunik 3-1. That was followed up by a 1-0 victory at Zalgirls, meaning Basel top Group H and have won their opening two group games in a European competition for the first time since 2015/16.
They put their 100% record to the test against Group H’s bottom side Slovan Bratislava, who have picked up just one point from two games. The Slovakian champions are flying domestically though, sitting top of the division with 26 points from 11 matches, picking up eight wins and two draws since losing on the opening day of the campaign.
Even so, manager VladimĂr Weiss is far from satisfied, blasting “some players are comfortable here” after a 3-1 victory over Podbrezová at the weekend. He will be hoping to inspire his team to end a run of three successive away defeats in the UECL, all of them without scoring, and a first victory over Swiss opposition since 1989 (D3, L8).
Players to watch: Andi Zeqiri has won on each of his four goal scoring appearances for Basel, including twice in the UECL, while Slovan’s David Hrncar has netted five times this season, but is yet to open his account in eight European appearances.
Hot stat: Basel’s last three home matches have averaged five goals a game with each seeing over 1.5 first half goals.