Young Boys vs Crvena zvezda prediction: EUROPE: Champions League – League phase betting tips on match 2025-01-28 20:00.
[p]The 2024/25 UEFA Champions League (UCL) will soon come to an end for both Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade, two of the nine clubs already confirmed as eliminated. This match may therefore not be of any importance to new head coach Giorgio Contini, who was hired in December to get the defending Swiss champions back into the Championship Group of the Swiss Super League. [/p]
[p]Contini suggested that their last UCL match (L 1-0 v Celtic) was primarily “about gathering insights for the way forward” such as searching for their first goal of 2025 (D2, L1). Couple that with six defeats from their last eight UCL main-draw home matches (W1, D1), and things are looking bleak for Young Boys. Contini ought to remind his players the lone victory was against Red Star Belgrade just last season (2-0), especially since eight of the starting XI from that evening are still with the club! [/p]
[p]Red Star Belgrade return to league football this weekend, so they too could use this game as a springboard to set themselves up for more important things, namely ensuring their 17-point lead atop of the Serbian SuperLiga is converted into an early title. Their only competitive outing of 2025 came on the last UCL matchday, where they lost 3-2 to PSV in spite of their largest ever shot tally (21) in this competition.[/p]
[p]It’s their leaky defence that has been largely responsible for their three away losses in this league phase, with a total of 11 goals conceded leaving Red Star on the verge of creating unwanted history. The Serbian club have lost each of their last 13 away games in the UCL/European Cup and could now become the first club in history to record 14 such losses in a row if falling to another defeat here. [/p]
[p]Players to watch: Silvère Ganvoula remains Young Boys’ only goalscorer on home soil in this league phase, while five of his last seven competitive goals have also come at home. At 22 years old, Nasser Djiga became the youngest Red Star Belgrade player to both score and assist in a UCL match when doing so against PSV last round. [/p]
[p]Hot stat: 12 of the 14 league phase games involving either team produced over 2.5 goals.[/p]
[p][i]Written by Aaron Murphy[/i][/p]