Wolfsburg v Inter Betting Tip 1 – Thursday 12 March

Europa League Tips

Wolfsburg have been steadily improving as a club over the past few years and are quickly becoming one of the most entertaining teams to watch throughout all of Europe. The next step as a club is to be competing in the Champions League. They look on course to do that this season as they are currently nine points clear of third placed Borussia Monchengladbach. They can, of course, also qualify through the Europa League. That may not be required due to their position in the Bundesliga but there’s no doubt that they will be targeting the completion for the trophy and prestige alone. Having reached the last 16 – and taking their league position into consideration – they may just have an edge on other clubs who do not have the same luxury of a large points cushion in their domestic leagues.

If Wolfsburg are at one end of the spectrum of team’s who require to win the Europa League to reach next season’s Champions League, Inter are very much at the other. The Italians are struggling in Serie A and have virtually no chance of making the top three. They may not be amongst the favourites to win this competition either but it’s still a much more realistic opportunity. They survived a scare against Celtic in the round of 32, overcoming the Scottish champions 4-3 on aggregate. Roberto Mancini has enjoyed success at the club in his previous spell as manager but he’s working with a vastly inferior side this time around and come into this tie as very much the underdogs.

The money that Wolfsburg have spent over the last couple of seasons is a signal of intent as they look to narrow the gap between the themselves and Bayern in the Bundesliga, and compete at the very top of European football. They qualified from their Europa League group second behind Everton who won both games between the two clubs. Other than that, the Germans were fairly comfortable and took a similar level of form into the first knockout tie when they defeated Sporting Lisbon 2-0 at home before drawing the return leg 0-0.

Inter’s fragility is illustrated by the fact they have kept only two clean sheets in their last 10 matches in all competitions. It will be a huge concern for Mancini who is known doe building his side’s on a solid defence. The immediate concern is obviously Thursday’s game and visiting a side who have already scored 15 goals in this season’s competition and average over two goals a game in the Bundesliga. Inter simply have to defend better than they have done recently, most notably their last away game in the Europa League when they shipped three goals.

The draw for the last 16 of the Europa League has thrown up some very exciting ties and this is certainly one of them. The home side suffered a surprise defeat in the league at the weekend but they still look on a different level to Thursday’s opponents at the moment. Only Everton have defeated them at home this season and they’ve won 10 of their 12 home games in the Bundesliga. They may not be a hugely attractive price but they look an extremely solid pick.

Wolfsburg 7/10 @ Betfred