Sporting Braga vs AEK Athens Betting Tip Braga – 22 October 2020

Sporting Braga vs AEK Athens
22 October 2000hrs
Football – Europe – Europa League
Pick Sporting Braga
Bookmaker Betfair
Odds: 8/11 odds taken 2000 GMT, Tuesday 20 October

It’s a first meeting between Sporting Braga and AEK Athens as the two teams go head to head in search of three points to kick start their respective group stage campaigns.

Bet at Betfair

Sporting Braga Preview – Will Braga build on their better domestic form of late to take all three points?

This will be Braga’s sixth straight appearance in the group stages of the Europa League. They have progressed to the knockout stages in three of the previous five campaigns. The best run in that time was to the quarter-final whilst they did of course play in the all-Portuguese final back in 2011. Losing narrowly to Porto.

More recently, Braga somehow contrived to lose to Rangers in the round of 32 last season despite being two goals up in the first leg away from home.

AEK Athens Preview – Are AEK set for a productive campaign following excellent playoff win over Wolfsburg?

Massimo Carrera has been in charge of AEK Athens for 10 months and he’s enjoying his time in the Greek capital. A short spell in charge of Juventus was followed by two years as head coach of Spartak Moscow in which he won the league title. Carrera has already led AEK to a win in the Greek Cup in his maiden season and qualify them for Europe. This season has been something of a struggle – at least domestically – but it’s still very early.

European football has brought much more encouragement, however. The playoff win at home to Wolfsburg is one of the AEK’s best results in recent times and gives them a platform to build on heading into the group stage.

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Karim Ansarifard picked the best time to score his first goal for a club he joined this summer. His goal in the fourth minute of injury time was the difference against the Bundesliga outfit. Carrera will be hoping that his team can build on that win and qualify for knockout European football for the first time since 2008.

AEK’s recent away record in the competition is nothing short of excellent. They are unbeaten in their last 10 away Europa League games between the group stage and qualifiers. They’ve won five of those, most recently against St Gallen earlier this season.

AEK will come with a lot of confidence but it may be that they have to settle for second best this time. Braga have the edge in experience and that can see them through to three points on match day one.