Football Bet of the Day: Swiss miss on the cards

• Plzen dominated first leg but somehow lost

• Hosts lost their Super League opener

• Plzen progress a value play at 5/42.25 

Servette v Plzen
Wednesday 30 July, 20:00

Kairat did indeed turn around their Champions League tie against KuPS yesterday, winning 3-0 despite playing a chunk of the game with ten men. Our Asian Handicap bet landed, and well done to those who took the more aggressive option of backing the Kazakh side to qualify.

We'll stick with the Champions League qualifiers, because Swiss side Servette are looking to maintain their 1-0 lead from the first leg, as they face Czech giants Viktoria Plzen.

Viktoria dominated the first leg in Czechia, but despite having 23 goal attempts and hitting the woodwork, they couldn't make their superiority count. It's worth remembering however that this is a team with genuine pedigree. They have won six league titles since 2011, and haven't finished outside the top three in Czechia in that time.

As a result of that success, Viktoria have racked up plenty of European experience. They reached the last 16 of the Europa League last season, and the quarter-finals of the Conference League the campaign before that.

Servette are a big club in Switzerland, with 17 league titles, but none of those have come since the turn of the century. They reached the group stage of the Europa League in 2023, but in the last few years they have generally fallen short in qualifiers.

Servette lost their Swiss Super League opener against Young Boys at the weekend, and I fancy they'll struggle here against a side that has plenty of European nous. You can back Plzen at 5/42.25 to turn this tie around and qualify, and they have already rattled in six goals across their first two Czech league matches.

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