Topic: ⚽UEFA Conference League Discussion Thread -- 2022/23 | Round of 16 - page 35. (Read 7315 times)

No surprises? I think Villareal was at least a slight upset, and even Hammers scoring two (Antonio, no less, who's had a barren spell in the league) is some sort of surprise.

But yeah I get it. Nothing shocking. In fact, there isn't any shock in store in Conference anymore, unless Djurgarden goes to the final...

I should mention that there were no surprises among the matches played yesterday. West Ham won 2-0 away from home to secure their place in the competition, and any away win is a big advantage for any team. It was also important for Villareal to get a draw against a strong opponent like Anderlecht.
The only team that will struggle with these results seems to be Basel. A 2-2 draw at home is not good news for Basel.

betting on lazio is a big risk, they beat napoli because they were lucky, their style of play in which they are very concentrated on defense, it didn't work against az, i watched their serie A game against napoli, they stayed in defense and go on the counter - attack, as they know napoli well so they already predicted that napoli would stay in the attack in the game against them, while az is a team that they don't know, I imagine (I didn't watch the game) that lazio's strategy did not work against the az, in the eredivisie the az has an average of 2 goals scored per game and 1 goal conceded per game, the az had more chances of winning in this game

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yesterday there were a lot of games, and there are teams with strange names that I confess I haven't been following their games, so I'll just talk about teams I know.

Villarreal 1 - 1 Anderiecht

I don't really know what happened to Villareal lately, they started to drop a lot of performance in La Liga, but in the last two games before this one against Anderiecht they won, so even I thought they were going to win in this game, but to my surprise they tied. anyway, villareal is in decay

Fiorentina 1 - 0 sivasspor

well, this is a result that doesn't surprise me, fiorentina dominated this game, and before this game, fiorentina beat milan and other teams, so for this game i was convinced that they would come out with victory since they are in a good phase

Nice 1 - 0 sheriff

well, for this game i was betting on nice to win, they are having a good performance in Ligue 1, so they would not lose in this game, and as expected they managed to win, the problem will be in the second leg because nice there's a game against nantes, it won't be an easy game for nice in Ligue 1, this will wear out the game against sheriff, that's why i think that in the second leg game i won't be surprised with a draw

AEK Larnaca 0 - 2 west ham

this is a predictable result, to be honest I believe that wester ham will go far in this competition, even if they are not very consistent in the premier league

Our representatives sivasspor and başakşehir failed to win away. Sivasspor lost 1-0 in a tough match against Fiorentina. It must be said that Fiorentina played a pressured and beautiful football. They were already the favorites. This win gave them an advantage.
Basaksehir, on the other hand, drew in a game in which they were ahead. A draw is better for Basaksehir. If they win at home, they will be the favorites to advance.

So true. Great for Fiorentina who managed to pull out a victory and they look strong in Conference because in Serie A they are a disaster at this point but I must say , they do have a chance to win Conference this year as the other contender team should be West Ham or Villareal.

Meanwhile , Nice are playing a very offensive football no matter if they have home or away games.

Villareal and Fiorentina look pretty all right for the odds, but not touching any of the others (save maybe a Hammers HT win). Nice and Basel would be my darkhorse picks, but at this stage, I'd go for a Nice rebuild progress, to fall to one of Spain/Italy/England teams later if they make it past Sheriff.

Normally here's also where I back some of the geographically Asian teams (what? EUFA?) but not when odds aren't 5/1!

I'm especially curious to see what Sivasspor can do, they have a strong opponent and they eliminated Braga by beating them differently, Sivasspor's job is not easy.
Our other representative goes to Gent.Başakşehir is doing well in the league and will have a tough match at the weekend.They may not care much about this match.I think they will play for a draw.A draw will be a very, very big advantage for them.

Still, at 1/8 finals Conference league games doesn't looks very attractive to watch. Most of attention will go to Europa league and I'm not going to put much money on Conference league. Maybe I will go with West Ham and Basel ML's. I skip betting on Nice, I simply don't know what to expect from them. They're not very consistent this season and Sheriff is tricky team, already eliminated Partizan a bit unexpected.

I've locked a small bet on Basel and Slovan BTTS @1.89

These two played each other twice in the group stages earlier in the season, a group that was ultimately topped by Slovan. 8 goals in those two games.

I don't rate Basel high, don't think they are as good as they were 5/6+ years ago. The Swiss conceded at home to teams like Pyunik and Zalgiris, and are fortunate to be in this stage of the tournament after being dominated by Trabzonspor in both matches of the 1/16 finals. I like the Slovaks to get a positive result today.

I honestly didn't expect Lazio to lose. I expected Lazio to come into this game in high spirits after defeating Napoli at the weekend and I expected them to win differently. But it didn't happen. In both halves we saw attacks and positions from both teams. The first half ended in a 1-1 draw. In the second half, Lazio were a bit more dominant but couldn't find what they hoped for. With a goal in the 63rd minute, they lost the match 2-1.

Although Turkish teams play successful matches, they are not yet fully qualified.  Especially the favorite team I saw in the cup is West Ham.  Başakşehir is the best among the Turkish teams, but I don't think they can go very far in the tournament.  Sivasspor is very bad in their league.  I don't think it would be right to expect success from Turkish teams at this stage.

Thank you Lazio for ruining my week so fast.

This is the team that finally broke Napoli. Hail Sarri. Hail the attack, should have been such an easy pick, and I thought nothing about adding them to my acca.

They did pepper Dutch's goal with attempts, but surprisingly allowed the weaker team to muscle them off the ball too much.

Note to self: stick to upsets.

Today's match of the day is Lazio vs Laz Alkmaar. Lazio are the favorites because they are at home. They defeated Napoli at the weekend and will come here in high spirits. I think they will definitely win this match as they will also be in good spirits with the win over Napoli. Az alkmaar is not an easy opponent but Lazio will want to score as many goals as they can here. We are likely to see a different win. It could be 2-0 or 3-1.

Lazio is opening this Conference league round, playing against AZ today

there is several good games on Thursday, but no easy home wins IMO
Basel against Slovan should be a home win, Villareal has a test against Anderlecht, Gent and Fiorentina are playing against Turkish teams at home, West Ham going to Cyprus

Villarreal seems to me the big favorite in this tournament and I gave my preference to them. But in the end, it will be necessary to look at the priorities of the teams, since Lazio will not have an easy end of the season and will the struggle for the Champions League zone in Seria A. And for Villarreal, the Conference League may be the only one chance for Euro cups next season. So far my favorite is Villarreal.

you have those on Sportsbet, Villareal, West Ham and Lazio are biggest favorites (around 5 odds)

Turkish teams have bigger odds, but nothing that would send me to think about putting money on them:
- Basaksehir - 21
- Sivasspor - 67

if you are looking for underdog, Basel is a good pick @25 (AZ @10.5 is looking worse then them, IMO)

Very true, that's a dream final but I would really like to see a new winner too, which is why I am looking at Hammers as a nice finalist. Lazio I don't know to trust anymore they cannot keep hoping Immobile is winning for them and Nice as you say look like they are changing key persons their team but I cannot see them compete so soon.

I think everyone thought so, except referee. What's the point of technology if they can't rely on it and have to watch replays.

I think most of bookies have it. On Sportsbet they have 21.00 for Basaksehir and 67.00 for Sivasspor.

How about Lazio and Villarreal? West Ham is struggling in EPL, but they should be happy about draw that they got and they have good chance to win whole thing. Fiorentina situation in Serie A is similar, but I don't believe in them, despite eliminating Braga easy. Personally I would like to see Villarreal vs Hammers in final.
NIce is my black horse of competition after they have done some nice job in winter transfer window.

That's the only danger at this level of the competition, really, to underestimate opponents.

And to not be prepared for teams that know they will likely lose so will either play to their maximum effort or sit back and frustrate their more illustrious opponents.

I still never get why big teams act surprised when that happens haha.

Does anyone know where Conference League outrights are offered? I'd go one of the Turks if odds are pretty!

Lazio is probably bigger favorite than all three
especially now, with Maximiano getting his chance to prove himself there, since Calcio is reserved for Provedel

somehow, I think that Lazio will win it in the end, shame that Partizan left competition in this round, after away win, but we basically didn't show anything