Betting Tip
A modest bit of recruitment before stepping back onto the international stage only slightly helped BATE Borisov in the first qualifying round of the Conference League. Against AF Elbasani, Vitaliy Rogozhkin’s side showed character: first they came from behind in the away leg to draw 1:1, then they prevailed in a penalty shoot-out in Sumgayit (2:1 on aggregate). The Borisov club quickly integrated their new signings — Nikolay Bochko, Kirill Kaplenko, Erick Puerto and Vladislav Varaksa all logged plenty of minutes in Europe. On the other hand, BATE Borisov have certainly not become significantly stronger. The yellow-and-blues operate with a fairly basic low block, leaving a lone striker up front. The plan for Thursday is quite simple: limit the space available to the opponents and wait for their own counter-attacks.
FC Sion will certainly have no problems with creativity. In the last Swiss Super League campaign, Didier Tholot’s team finished even above FC Basel 1893 and BSC Young Boys, although the gap to champions FC Thun was enormous (12 points). The red-and-whites can definitely take the end of last season and the recent pre-season as a major positive — their unbeaten run already stands at 14 matches (their last setback came in early March). In friendlies, FC Sion claimed four wins in a row, scoring 18 goals in total.
FC Sion are far stronger on paper — their squad market value is almost seven times higher than BATE Borisov’s (28.9–4.4 million euros). Didier Tholot’s side have built up good momentum, but their opponents’ match sharpness is still higher. We think BATE Borisov will avoid a heavy defeat, but the favourites will still win.
