Spartak Moscow vs Rapid Vienna Predictions

Spartak Moscow head into gameweek 5 of their Europa League group in a decent position. They sit 2nd in the table, however just 2 points separate bottom placed Rapid Wien and first placed Villarreal in what’s turning out to be a really competitive group. They head into this weeks game on the back of a confidence boosting 3-1 home win against Krylya Sovetov in the Russian Premier League and will expect a good result here.

Rapid Wien travel to Russia bottom of Group G, however as aforementioned, they sit just two points off Villarreal in first place so all is definitely not lost. They don’t head to Moscow with much confidence however as they have suffered back to back losses in the Austria Bundesliga and are winless since their 3-0 cup victory over Wolfsberger nearly a month ago.

Spartak Moscow have made a modest start to their Europa League group with one win, two draws and one defeat from their 4 group games so far. Surprisingly their only loss in the group stages so far came at the hands of this week’s opponents, as they lost 2-0 in Austria in game-week 1. They have bounced back well from that defeat with draws at home to Villarreal and away at Rangers and a 4-3 home win against Rangers last time out.

Rapid Wien started their Europa League group campaign in the perfect fashion, beating Spartak Moscow 2-0 on home soil, a victory they were really good value for having restricted their opponents to just 4 shots on goal. They will need to dig out another performance like that here this week if they want any hope of progressing.

Spartak Moscow don’t have a great home record in the Europa League, their 4-3 win against Rangers last time out was their first win in the competition since a 3-0 win against Ajax way back in 2011. Despite the poor results they are goal merchants at home, scoring 18 goals in their last 9 home games in the competition. They find the net regularly, only failing to score in 2 of their 20 home games in the Europa League.

Rapid Wien are a side that don’t travel well, particularly in Europe, They have lost 3-1 at Rangers and 5-0 at Villarreal in their two away games of the group so far. Going further back Rapid Wien have conceded 2+ goals in their last 4 consecutive away games and have failed to keep a clean sheet since their 4-0 away win against Trencin in 2016.

Bookmakers have surprisingly priced Spartak Moscow up at a respectable price to win here, however the value we really like is the Team Goals market. As aforementioned Spartak have scored on average 2 goals a game at home over the past 9 Europa League games. Rapid Wien have conceded 8 in their 2 away Europa League games this season. Given their atrocious away record of late in the competition we are backing the home side on the Over 2.5 Team Goals market. We are getting over 2/1 for a bet they have landed twice in 4 games, against much better opposition in Villarreal and Rangers.

On the correct score front Spartak haven’t got the greatest defence in the world and we do think the away side could breach it on Thursday, all be it likely to be a consolation goal. For that reason we are backing Spartak to win 3-1 here.