Fulham are on a road trip in Swtizerland as part of their European adventure and they go into the final game against Basel with a chance of qualification.
Group E is tight. Roma have qualified but Basel can win the group with a victory over Fulham. The London boys can win the group by winning tonight and Roma getting a nil return in Sofia, against CSKA.
Fulham have done well. Their most recent road trip resulted in a 2-1 defeat aginst Roma, when some shambolic decisions by Blom(ref) cost them at least a point. In the Premiership they have a fair record away from home. Played eight, they have drawn four and in 50% of their away matches there has been 2 or more goals.
Basel, coached by Thorsten Fink, are on fire at home this season. They sit second to the Young Boys in the League but in their last five games they have won 4-0,5-0, 3-1,4-1 and 3-2. Granted they haven't beeen smacking anybody as good as Fulham but these victories do breed confidence. In Europe Basel have played five home matches. They have won all five games by at least two goals and there has been an average of three goals per match.
Thorsten, of course, will be fondly remembered by Manchester United fans. He was a Bayern Munich holding midfielder brought on with 8 minutes to go in the Champions League Final. No doubt his brief was to hold onto the 1-0 lead and keep it tight. The rest is history and perhaps that's why he is now based in Switzerland.
The washing line doesn't think there will be goals. The less than 2.5 market is favourite, about the 1.73 mark. We assume the boys who do the washing are thinking a tight game. Betfair go 2.18 in the more than market and the majority of firms are odds against. Based on the stats and the fact that Fulham need to win we would play over.
Given the scoring rate delivered by Basel in recent games and the margin of victory the other price that grabs the attention is Basel -1 goal on the handicap. At 4.5 we think there is more value, but on a cold night ,this goes hand in glove,with more risk.
Frei and Streller have been in great scoring form in the League with eleven goals each. Frei has bagged four in the Europa League and he stands out at 7 with Betfred to bag the first/last.
