Thursday Football Tips: Basel won't be faulty in Belfast

Crusaders v Basel
Thursday 28 July
20:00 BST kick-off

After a 2-0 first-leg victory in Switzerland, FC Basel will fancy their chances of strolling into the next round of Europa Conference League qualification after their trip to Crusaders.

Crusaders won their last European home tie in Belfast, but Basel offer a big step up and the home fans at Seaview had previously seen four winless matches (D1 L3).

Basel have had a remarkable five straight draws away from home and know that a sixth would be more than enough to get them through.

The 2-0 first-leg score was actually achieved with 10 men as Basel had Taulant Xhaka sent off - the older brother of Arsenal's Granit taught him everything he knows!

Dan Ndoye and Adam Szalai scored for Basel as they defied the man advantage before easing down to a comfortable win - and it should be more of the same here.

The two scorers will be the ones to watch again as this Basel team should dominate with 11 men on the field - they had 56% possession, 16 shots and five on target when playing for an hour in the first leg.

Basel may not need to be in top gear throughout, but an early goal or two will kill the tie off completely, and Hungarian striker Szalai has to be the man to back to get one.

He's proved to be a top-level operator with his national side and he'll bring just a bit too much quality for Crusaders to handle.

Szalai to score in an away win and a clean sheet will give us a nice tidy Bet Builder profit.