Toffees to silence French foes

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Matt Brocklebank previews Thursday's Europa League action and expects Everton to keep things tight against Lille.

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2pts Everton to win to nil v Lille

Celtic, Tottenham and Everton are all in Europa League action and it’s to Goodison Park I’ll be heading for the best bet on the Thursday night coupon.

Everton come into their encounter with Lille as current leaders of Group H with five points from a possible nine at the halfway stage, while their French opponents have drawn all three games, including the reverse fixture, and continue to find life difficult on the domestic front despite finishing third in the table last season.

After a reasonable start to the current campaign, Rene Girard’s side have stuttered in recent weeks and haven’t tasted victory since their 1-0 home win over Bastia at the end of September.

Unlike under former boss Rudi Garcia, Girard’s footballing philosophy is very much based on Lille having a solid defensive core, yet their forward play has suffered dramatically as a result and they’ve only managed three goals in the Europa League this term, despite two of their games coming at home.

Lille are also Ligue 1’s joint-lowest scorers with just nine goals to their credit and there’s every reason to believe they’re going to struggle to break down an Everton defence that looks to have ironed out some of their early-season mistakes.

After conceding two at Old Trafford early in October, the Toffees’ back line has only been breached once in four subsequent games in all competitions – namely Danny Ings’ strike in their 3-1 win at Turf Moor – and they look decent value at 2/1 to claim a win to nil.

Going forward, the introduction of proven class act Samuel Eto’o, who has already netted in this competition this season, appears to have taken a little bit of pressure off record-signing Lukaku, who seems certain to come back into the starting XI having been benched for the weekend visit of Swansea.

Packing the midfield worked wonders in terms of nullifying the Swans’ threat, but Roberto Martinez is likely to revert to two up front here and Eto’o to score any time rates a fair price at odds in excess of 6/4.

But it’s an Everton victory without reply that appeals most as they showed they can keep Lille quiet in the 0-0 draw at the Stade Pierre-Mauroy, and the visitors’ main frontman, Divock Origi, is currently suffering from a similar problem as his parent club Liverpool and hasn’t scored since hitting the solitary goal in the aforementioned victory over Bastia.
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Celtic are in good shape leading the way level on points with Red Bull Salzburg at the top of Group D ahead of their trip to Romania to face FC Astra Giurgiu.

Another victory on Thursday would put Ronny Deila's side on 10 points and in an outstanding position but they were dealt a late blow when striker Anthony Stokes was deemed too ill to travel by the club doctors and it might be tricky for Celtic to justify 13/8 favouritism.

With leading goalscorer John Guidetti unavailable having joined from Manchester City on loan too late to be registered for the competition, and Kris Commons and James Forrest out injured, Deila has a dearth of attacking options at his disposal and may look to play a little more compact in light of their current standing and a home game against Salzburg on the horizon at the end of the month.

Under 2.5 goals is an option but an Astra win with the draw-no-bet concession looks a better even-money shot of the two and that's worth close consideration.
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Hat-trick hero Harry Kane stole the show in Tottenham's 5-1 victory over Asteras Tripoli in their last Europa outing (despite Erik Lamela's extraordinary 'Rabona') and Mauricio Pochettino's Spurs are no bigger than 4/11 to inflict another defeat on the Arcadian outfit.

However, their opponents are ticking along quite nicely in the Greek Super League and haven't lost a competitive match in front of their own fans since the middle of May.

Perhaps more pertinently, prior to a night they'll wish to forget at White Hart Lane Tripoli had beaten Partizan Belgrade 2-0 and earned a 1-1 draw in Besiktas earlier in the round, so they clearly have the capabilities to cut it at this level.

Tottenham will pose a sterner test, but they're hardly setting the Premier League alight themselves and still seem to be well short of where Pochettino hoped they might be five months into his tenure.

Kane is close to even-money to maintain his impressive run of form and claim another Europa League goal, but there's not masses of value to be had there and I'd rather head to the half-time/full-time market, with Tottenham to complete the job after drawing at the break making some appeal around 4/1.