Shamrock Rovers vs Gent prediction: EUROPE: Europa Conference League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2022-10-26 19:00.
It’s been a disastrous UEFA Conference League (UECL) campaign for Shamrock Rovers who have the unwanted tag of being the only side still in the competition yet to score a group stage goal. They’ve unsurprisingly already been eliminated from Group F (D1, L3) and are now playing for pride alone in this final European home fixture of the campaign.
Despite their European woes, it’ll be far from doom and gloom at Tallaght Stadium after Shamrock were confirmed as Irish champions for a third successive year with two games to spare on Monday night as league rivals Derry failed to beat Sligo. This is sure to create a buoyant atmosphere and could help the Hoops rediscover their mojo on home turf given their matchday four defeat to Molde was their first home defeat in Europe this season (W4, D1), and incredibly the first time they’d lost a competitive home game in 30 fixtures (W25, D4).
Third-place Gent still harbour some hope of reaching the knockout stages of the UECL, but sitting three points behind second-placed Molde, they must at least match the newly crowned Norwegian champions' result at home to Djurgården before hosting them in what they’ll hope will be a crucial H2H in the final round.
However, Hein Vanhaezebrouck's side are not heading to Dublin in the best of form, especially on the road where they’ve won only one of their last six competitive outings (D1, L4), while the Belgians are also winless in their last five European away games (D1, L4). In search of positives, there were at least improvements in attack in their last UECL outing though, where Gent scored more than once in a European away game for the first time since a 3-1 Europa League win at Wolfsburg back in November 2019, despite falling to a 4-2 defeat away to Djurgården.
Players to watch: After bagging three goals across his last two matches, Shamrock’s Graham Burke would love to end his side’s European scoring drought here. Gent opponent Hugo Cuypers scored in the 3-0 H2H win and has attempted the joint most UECL shots after four rounds (16).
Hot stat: Each of Gent’s last seven competitive matches have produced at least one goal before half-time.