Sports Mole previews Thursday’s Conference League clash between Real Betis and Gent, including predictions, team news and possible lineups.
Real Betis will welcome Gent to the Estadio Benito Villamarin for Thursday’s second leg of their Conference League knockout round playoff clash against Gent.
The Spanish hosts already have one foot in the last 16 after cruising to a 3-0 victory in last week’s first leg in Belgium.
Match preview
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Betis are on the brink of setting up a last-16 tie against Chelsea or Vitoria de Guimaraes after producing a dominant display in the first leg of their knockout round playoff tie with Gent.
After the two sides played out a goalless first half, Manchester United loanee Antony opened the scoring within two minutes of the restart, before Cedric Bakambu and Sergi Altimira found the net to wrap up a 3-0 win.
Los Verdiblancos produced a repeat of that scoreline in Sunday’s La Liga clash against 10-man Real Sociedad, with Antony netting his third Betis goal before substitute Marc Roca scored twice in five minutes to secure a comfortable victory, moving Manuel Pellegrini’s side up to eighth place in the league table.
That result ended Betis’ five-game winless home run in the top flight, representing their first league win at the Benito Villamarin since beating Atletico Madrid at the end of October.
In contrast to their league form, Los Verdiblancos have had no problem picking up home wins in the Conference League, having won three of their four home matches in this season’s competition (D1).
They will certainly be confident about protecting their sizeable first-leg advantage, especially as they have lost by three goals or more in just one of their 37 competitive matches this season, which was a heavy 5-1 defeat in last month’s Copa del Rey tie against Barcelona.
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Gent are competing in the Conference League knockout phase for the third consecutive season after they finished in 17th place in the league phase – two points behind Betis in 15th position.
The Belgian side reached the quarter-finals in 2022-23, before they were eliminated in last season’s playoff round by Maccabi Tel Aviv.
They are now on the verge of another playoff round exit after they suffered their first home defeat of their 2024-25 Conference League campaign.
Gent managed to avoid another defeat in Sunday’s league clash against Beerschot, coming from 2-1 down to record a 3-2 home victory thanks to a brace of Dante Vanzeir penalties.
They will now travel to Spain dreaming of pulling off a miracle, which is made even more improbable by the fact they have won just one of their previous 14 competitive away matches (D7, L6).
The visitors may be able to draw inspiration that they have won by three goals on two occasions in this season’s Conference League, recording a 3-0 away victory over Vikingur in qualifying before they offered a repeat of that scoreline their home meeting with TSC in the league phase.
Real Betis Conference League form:
Real Betis form (all competitions):
Gent Conference League form:
Gent form (all competitions):
Team News
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Betis will be without Roca and Giovani Lo Celso after the pair picked up foot and hamstring injuries in the win over Real Sociedad.
Los Verdiblancos are also expected to be without the services of Hector Bellerin, William Carvalho, Angel Ortiz and Pablo Fornals.
Winter addition Cucho Hernandez is unavailable for selection after being left out of Betis’ squad for the Conference League knockout rounds.
As for the visitors, they have omitted Aime Omgba, Andrew Hjulsager and Max Dean from their Conference League list due to their respective injury issues.
Tom Vandenberghe and Samuel Kotto have also been left out of Gent’s European squad, while Noah Fadiga is currently unavailable for selection.
Defender Jordan Torunarigha will come back into the fold after being suspended for Saturday’s league win over Beerschot.
Real Betis possible starting lineup:Vieites; Sabaly, Bartra, Natan, Perraud; Altimira, Cardoso; Antony, Avila, Ezzalzouli; Bakambu
Gent possible starting lineup:Roef; Mitrovic, Watanabe, Torunarigha; Samoise, Ito, Lopes, Brown; Kums; Vanzeir, Gudjohnsen
We say: Real Betis 3-1 Gent
Gent will need to take risks if they are to work their way back into this tie, but we think that attacking approach could play into Betis’ hands, which is why we believe the hosts could claim another comfortable win to ease through into the last 16.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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