Galatasaray vs Tottenham Prediction, Odds and Betting Tips: Back this 14/1 fancy on Thursday evening

Galatasaray host Tottenham in the Europa League on Thursday, live on TNT Sports 1 at 5:45pm. 

Oli Nixon has previewed the match and supplied his best bets, including a 14/1 fancy in the anytime goalscorer market.

The teams sat 5th (Galatasaray) and 2nd (Tottenham) clash in the 36 team Europa League table on Thursday evening in a game that looks set to be entertaining.

The Turkish side are unbeaten since late August and having seen off rivals Besiktas at the weekend to go three points clear at the top of the Super Lig table; they’ll be hoping that their infamous atmosphere can claim another scalp in this game.

Spurs have had an excellent week of their own with back-to-back victories over Man City and Aston Villa and having conceded just one goal in this competition so far, they’ll travel with plenty of confidence.

Both bets for this game focus around a central theme – set pieces. On one side we have a Galatasaray team who have scored more goals from set pieces than any other side in Europe this season with 12 from such situations in just 14 games across all competitions. In the opposing corner, Spurs have conceded 18 set piece goals in the Premier League under Ange Postecoglou in just over a year. The latest of those goals came from Aston Villa on Sunday to expose their deficiencies in this area once again, a fourth goal conceded from set plays in just 10 league games this season.  

A big part of Galatasaray’s threat from set pieces is ex-Spurs man Davinson Sanchez. The Colombian has averaged 0.94 shots per 90 this season and is in excellent form having smashed three shots and the opening goal in the aforementioned victory over Besiktas. He was on the scoresheet against Rizespor earlier in the season having also scored for his country in this summer’s Copa America competition.

Centre back partner Bardacki has also chipped in with two goals this season and will be a threat but you’d fancy that Sanchez will be desperate to prove a point against his former club and throwing himself at any and all set pieces.

Spurs have allowed opposition centre backs to combine for 14 shots between them this season and most of those shots have come against preferred centre back partnership Cristian Romero and Micky Van de Ven.

For this game, both players are injured and without them, Spurs look even more vulnerable in the air. Deputising in this fixture will be Radu Dragusin and the 5 foot 9 inch Ben Davies. With Davinson Sanchez standing at comfortably over 6 foot tall, this looks like a complete mismatch and one that the Turkish side should be looking to exploit.

Across Spurs' last three games they have given up 2.31xg from set pieces and they couldn’t be facing a tougher prospect than this Galatasaray side who pepper sides with set plays and score over 30% of their goals from them. They’ll do well to escape Istanbul with their unbeaten Europa League record intact and may have to do even better to avoid conceding from a set piece.

Galatasaray vs Tottenham Lineups

The starting lineups for Galatasaray vs Tottenham will be displayed in the graphic below once the team news has been announced.