Slavia Prague and Athletic Bilbao will face off at the Fortuna Arena in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Both teams have had little to cheer about across the opening four rounds of league phase action, and as a consequence the pair are currently sitting outside of the top-24.
Slavia Prague have drawn with Bodo/Glimt and Atalanta while they have come away empty-handed from their clashes with Inter Milan and Arsenal, the latter of which brought up two of my three selections.
On the domestic front, Jindrich Trpisovsky’s team are top of the Czech First League, defeating Bohemians Praha 3-1 in their most recent outing.
As for Athletic Bilbao, they have posted one win and three defeats across their opening four Champions League games of the season.
Ernesto Valverde ‘s side are also toiling in La Liga at the minute, with Saturday's 4-0 defeat at Barcelona their third defeat in four matches.
How the bookies view it: Advantage Athletic Bilbao
Despite their current slump, Athletic Bilbao arrive in the Czech capital priced up as 7/5 favourites with bet365.
Slavia Prague are as big as 2/1 to triumph with bet365 while an all-square affair at the Fortuna Arena is trading at 11/5 with the same bookmaker.
Head to head: Visitors seeking another victory
The two teams crossed paths in last season’s Europa League, with Athletic Bilbao earning a narrow 1-0 success at the San Mames. The same scoreline on Tuesday night can be backed at 7/1 on bet365.
Players to watch: Mbodji shots worth look?
Youssoupha Mbodji has attempted two shots in each of the three Champions League games that he started for Slavia Prague this season. With that in mind, 21-year-old offers value for at least one effort here at 5/6 on bet365 while two attempts or more appeals at 4/1.
Gorka Guruzeta has scored three goals in as many games in this season’s Champions League. The Athletic Bilbao attacker is a 9/4 anytime goalscorer option on UniBet.
Predicted line-ups
Slavia Prague could be without as many as five first-team players on Tuesday night, with Dominik Javorcek, Igoh Ogbu, Jan Boril, Petr Sevcik and Tomas Holes all expected to miss out for the hosts.
As was the case at the weekend, Athletic Bilbao again look set to be unable to call upon the services of injured quartet Benat Prados, Inaki Williams, Maroan Sannadi and Unai Eguiluz.
Slavia Prague: Stanek; Kristan, Chaloupek, Zima; Moses, Zafeiris, Sadilek, Mbodji; Provod, Chory, Sanyang
Athletic Bilbao: Simon; Berchiche, Laporte, Paredes, Gorosabel; Jauregizar, Ruiz de Galarreta; Williams, Sancet, Berenguer; Guruzeta
Anything else catch the eye?
With both teams currently languishing outside of the top 24 of the Champions League standings, the fear of defeat could outweigh any desire to win here.
As such, opposing goals and siding with under 2.5 strikes looks worthy of support at 17/20 with William Hill.
This selection would have proven profitable in two of Athletic Bilbao’s four Champions League matches this season, while Slavia Prague have already been involved in a goalless draw when on continental duty this term.
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GambleAware