Thessaloniki Must Make Up for Home Loss
The qualifying rounds of international competitions are slowly entering the home stretch. In the Europa League, the semifinal second legs are on the schedule. RSC Anderlecht hosts PAOK Thessaloniki, and according to the top bookmakers’ predictions, the Belgians are expected to advance. In the first leg, the hosts laid the groundwork for a potential advance to the next round with a 1-0 victory.
The Violet-Whites finished fourth last season, thereby qualifying for international competition. The Belgians already have a number of international successes to their credit, having won the UEFA Cup once and the European Cup Winners’ Cup twice. Last weekend, the Jupiler League kicked off the new season, and head coach Vitor Bruno’s team got off to a successful start with a 2-1 win over RAAL La Louvière.
The Greeks finished last season in third place in the Super League, behind AEK Athens and Olympiacos Piraeus. The new season doesn’t start until next weekend. Despite the home loss, the Black-and-Whites aren’t out of the running yet, as the statistics actually favored PAOK, so we’re looking forward to a close match.
Anderlecht – PAOK Thessaloniki Head-to-Head Record
In addition to the first leg, which ended 1-0 in favor of the Belgians, the two teams have faced off in two friendly matches. One match ended in a 2-2 draw, and in the other, the Greeks emerged victorious 3-1. In the second competitive match between these teams, RSC needs only a draw to advance to the next round.
Anderlecht vs. PAOK Thessaloniki Prediction
RSC Anderlecht entered the Europa League qualifiers in the last round. After a 1-1 draw at Hammarby IF, the Violet-and-Whites sealed the deal with a 3-1 home victory. Including preseason matches, Coach Bruno’s squad has lost only one of its last 13 games. In the league stage, the hosts scored 16 goals in ten matches—the second-highest total in the race for the national title. The sticking point was their weak defense, which was beaten 23 times in those ten matches. They won all three of their most recent home games.
PAOK faced the Ukrainian team Dynamo Kyiv in the final round. Following a 3–2 away victory, they also won the home match 2–0, securing their spot in the semifinals. The loss in the first leg was their first competitive defeat after a streak of seven matches. Last year, Thessaloniki boasted the best offense in the Greek Super League with 59 goals. Three consecutive draws cost them their chance to qualify for the Champions League in the final stretch.
We expect two evenly matched teams. Even in the first leg, the Black-and-Whites were actually the better team and led the Belgians in xGoals with 1.78, while the Belgians managed only 0.80 xG. Since the Greeks missed a penalty, the goal scored in the first minute of the game was enough to give RSC a slight advantage. We expect two teams to face off with a controlled offensive approach and to initially focus primarily on a solid defense.
Just how close this match is expected to be is reflected in the odds, which show a slight tendency toward an away win in the three-way market. Therefore, in the Anderlecht vs. PAOK Thessaloniki match, with odds of 3.40 available on the best sports betting apps, betting on a draw seems like an interesting alternative to us.
