AEK Larnaca vs West Ham Betting Tips: Back both teams to score in Cyprus

West Ham travel to sunny Cyrpus for the first-leg of their last-16 Europa Conference League tie against AEK Larnaca.

West Ham have struggled domestically this season but boast a 100% winning record in Europe from eight matches, a sequence they will hope to extend on Thursday, live on BT Sport 3 at 5.45pm.

Below we’ve picked out two tips for the first-leg duel.

it will be interesting to see how David Moyes tackles this game given the pressure he is currently under.

Moyes, fearing for his future in the Premier League Sack Race, has suffered three defeats in his last four matches.

However, he can draw on a superb record in Europe; not only did he reach the Europa League semi-finals last season; he's since delivered eight wins from eight matches in the Europa Conference League.

West Ham are the hot odds-on favourites (8/13, Betfred) to bounce back from recent domestic defeats with yet another win in Europe, while hosts Larnaca could represent an attractive price at 24/5 (BetUK) to record their eleventh win from their last 13 home games.

Alternatively, a draw is 3/1 with bet365.

Given that they continue to be plagued by inconsistency, backing West Ham at odds-on to win away in Europe has its risks as they enter into the knockout stages of the competition.

On their day the Hammers are fully capable of coming home with the spoils given their European experience and talented players, yet their form on the road hardly inspires optimism following a return of zero wins from their last 11 league away games, sinking to eight defeats in the process.

Couple this with the fact they visit the ground of a side unbeaten in a dozen home games in all competitions, 10 of which they’ve won, and West Ham's odds-on price for the win does look rather short.

Instead, I like the look of bet365’s odds-against offering of 11/10 for both teams to score in Cyprus.

West Ham have found the back of the net in all eight of their Europa Conference League clashes this season, scoring three goals in three of their four away games.

The club’s defensive vulnerabilities have been exposed in March in 3-1 and 4-0 defeats to Man Utd and Brighton respectively, making it difficult to see David Moyes’ men keeping a rare clean sheet against Larnaca, who have scored in 16 successive home games and all six European games on their own patch this term.

A tempting angle in the anytime goalscorer market is Ivan Trickovski, who heads into the game fresh off the back of a hat-trick in Larnaca's 3-1 victory at home to Enosis last weekend, which was his fifth goal in his last four league outings.

The skipper now has 12 goal involvements (nine goals) in 19 league games so far this season for the Cypriot title challengers.

West Ham's away woes have been highlighted in the section above, with the Hammers catching the mid-week flight to Cyprus following a chastening 4-0 defeat at Brighton, which left them one point above the drop zone.

Roared on by a passionate home crowd that have witnessed nine wins from Larnaca's last 10 games, there's every chance Trickovski can exploit these vulnerable cracks in the West Ham ranks, as he did at home to Fenerbahce in the Europa League group stages.

With that in mind I'm taking 4/1 on offer from Paddy Power for the captain to bag another goal.