Football Tips: Our dishy 16/1 double for West Ham & Rangers 5.45pm Europa League ties

Our tipster Colin Harvey's gearing up for a Thursday Europa feast.

* All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

Thursday’s early Europa League games see the reigning Scottish champions and the future English champions in action as Rangers and West Ham kick off early in a bid to beat the traffic. Yes, I did just refer to West Ham as the future English champions and I’m only half joking.

David Moyes has been working miracles with his Hammers and they’re having a great season in the Premier League, lying in 4th after 10 games, just five points off leaders Chelsea. If Leicester can do it, why not this impressive West Ham side?

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Well, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool are three rather sizable reasons why yours truly would be happy to take your money at 5,000/1. There’s also the small issue of this very competition which will be a huge drain on resources the further they progress, and Moyes seems to be taking it pretty seriously. All merriment aside, West Ham are looking really, really bloody good.

North of the border Rangers are top of the Premiership and come into this one fresh off the 6-1 spanking of Motherwell on Sunday. They’re really starting to pick up speed and desperately need to beat Brondby if they’re to make it through to the next stage. With plenty on the line let’s have a dishy double for Thursday’s early Europa League games.

* A double with these two bets pays at approximately 16/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD IT TO YOUR BETSLIP.

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5.45pm: Brondby v Rangers – Rangers to Win & Under 2.5 Goals

TV: BT Sport 2

Rangers and Brondby are locked in a three-way battle with Sparta Prague for the right to finish behind Lyon in the Europa League Group A. The Gers trail Sparta by a point at the half-way stage and can pretty much knock 4th-placed Brondby out of the reckoning with a win.

If they lose it’s an uphill battle with a trip to Lyon still to come on matchday six. Rangers beat Brondby 2-0 last time to get their first points of the competition and kick-start their European campaign.

For this match I think you have to be on Rangers to win and for a little bit of extra juice I think we can quite safely add Under 2.5 Goals into the mix. That’s what the numbers are saying, anyway, Rangers’ domestic and continental campaigns have taken very different paths with goals flying in all over the place in the Premiership.

However, in their five Europa League games this season (including qualifiers) Unders has landed 100% of the time. Their 2-0 win over Thursday’s opponents last time out was pretty straightforward with the Danes failing to get a single shot on target.

Logic dictates it should be trickier for Rangers away from home but we’ll be more than happy with a repeat of the first match. At a nice price, and with the numbers backing us up, Rangers to Win and Under 2.5 Goals packs plenty of punch to kick off our mega-value double.

5.45pm: Genk v West Ham – West Ham to Win to Nil

TV: BT Sport 3

Next up is the short trip to Belgium for West Ham who have a flawless record in this Europa League with three played, three won, seven scored and none conceded in Group H. As mentioned previously, Moyes’ boys are taking this competition pretty seriously with some strong teams fielded to date.

However, with qualification all-but assured and Liverpool next up in the Premier League, is this the game where they rest and rotate? Declan Rice has played most minutes that have been on offer in the Europa League this term but is he going to be risked with what’s around the corner?

I think David Moyes is very much thinking about the Big Mo (momentum, not Salah) and I reckon he’s going to stick with his policy of going surprisingly strong. He’s hardly rotated at all this season which bodes well for now, but come March?

Anyway, what I’m getting at is another side close to full strength and another easy West Ham Win to Nil. It’s a trick they’ve already pulled off three times in this European tour and there’s absolutely no reason to think Genk are the team to break the spell.

But, what’s this? The Belgian side have scored 12 in their last two. On closer inspection it’s well worth pointing out that those goals (six in each game) came against a type of shoe called Sint-Eloois-Winkel and typo team Waregem.

Before that they had failed to score, let alone avoid defeat, in four of their last five. If West Ham can keep clean sheets in games against Manchester City, Tottenham and Everton in their last five they can do so against Belgium’s 7th best team.

Thursday Europa League double

5.45pm: Brondby v Rangers – Rangers to Win & Under 2.5 Goals
5.45pm: Genk v West Ham – West Ham to Win to Nil

* A double with these two bets pays at approximately 16/1 with Paddy Power. CLICK HERE TO ADD IT TO YOUR BETSLIP.

All prices are bang up to date with our snazzy widgets, while odds in copy are accurate at time of publishing but subject to change.

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