Football Tips: 3 for glee as Tottenham face Maccabi Haifa in the Europa League

Another day another game for Spurs.

Spurs are heavy favourites going into their final Europa League qualification match against Israeli side Maccabi Haifa. This will be their fifth match in 12 days, they’ve not lost any of the previous four matches but could this be one too far for Jose Mourinho’s side?

More importantly, when a home side are such strong favourites can we find value in the betting markets? Let’s have a look for the Three Best Bets for this Europa League match.

Both Teams to Score

It’s quite bizarre to think that so early in the season a team have had to play so many matches over such a short period of time.

The silver lining though is that Spurs are unbeaten in all of them, winning two, drawing two (beating Chelsea on penalties in their most previous match).

Indeed, Spurs have started the season very strongly, apart from losing their opening Premier League match, 0-1 to Everton, they’ve not lost since.

Maccabi Haifa’s chances shouldn’t be written off completely here, they’re on a great run of form, winning five out of five recent matches in all competitions, three of which were in the Europa League. Coming up against a tired Spurs they’ll be keen to take advantage of the situation.

Spurs have only been kept scoreless in one of their matches so far this season while Haifa have scored at least one in eight out of 10 previous matches in all competitions.

We’re going against the market here with Both Teams To Score, but Haifa’s scoring record is good and Spurs have failed to keep any Clean Sheets so far this season.

Harry Kane

Harry Kane to Score 2 or More

Against Chelsea midweek both Jose Mourinho and Frank Lampard rotated much of their Starting XI and we got to see what their Plan B’s both look like and it won’t exactly have filled many Spurs fans with confidence.

Without Harry Kane and Son Heung-Min in the lineup the team had no focal point and were just lumping balls forward. They played like Burnley but in nicer kits.

With Son now out for a while and Gareth Bale still carrying some injury he surely picked up on one of Madrid’s many wonderful golf courses, the onus will be on Kane to get the goals.

And that’s certainly not a bad thing, he has three to his name this season and has a handful of assists as well.

Mourinho has said that qualification for the Group Stage is of huge importance for the club so he’s going to go with a full-strength side here and with all the traffic going through Kane we’re backing him to get at least two goals on the night.

One First Half Goal

Spurs have scored one First Half goal in three out of their last four matches and it’s plain to see that Mourinho wants them to be methodical in attack, not to be wasteful and taking pot shots but working the ball into areas where they have better chances of scoring.

In other words, getting the ball into the box before pulling the trigger.

And with this being their fifth match in 12 days they’re unlikely to come bolting out of the gates here, slow and steady will win the race here but Spurs should continue the trend of getting one before halftime here.

Two of these bets will also work in a Same Game Multi where you’ll get odds of around 8/1 for the first two picks mentioned here.

Tips for Tottenham v Maccabi Haifa on Thursday at 20:00

Both Teams To Score
Harry Kane to Score 2 or More
One First Half Goal

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