The UEFA Europa League resumes this week and on Thursday the 17th of February we have a meeting between Zenit St Petersburg and Real Betis in the knockout round playoffs.
The game will be played at the Stadion Krestovskyi and the hosts finished third in their Champions League group while the visitors were runners-up in their Europa League group.
👀🇪🇺💚#EuroBetis is coming! pic.twitter.com/XUglVaAad7— Real Betis Balompié (@RealBetis_en) February 14, 2022
👀🇪🇺💚#EuroBetis is coming! pic.twitter.com/XUglVaAad7
You must go back to the 12th of December to find the last time Zenit played a competitive match as there has been a winter break in Russia. They were held to a 1-1 draw at Dinamo Moscow and that followed a 3-3 draw at home in the Champions League against Chelsea.
Both teams already knew where they were going to finish in terms of the knockout stages of the Champions League and Europa League but it was still good performance by Zenit.
The Russians were disappointing for much of the Champions League group stage and having defeated Malmo 4-0 at home, failed to win any of their 4 remaining fixtures in the group. The back-to-back defeats against Juventus were costly and the draw in Malmo ended any hope of finishing in the top two.
In terms of the Europa League, Zenit have lost 4 of their 5 most recent games in the competition. However, they have won 6 of their last 7 on home soil but the only defeat came against Spanish opposition as Villarreal won 3-1 in 2019.
Real Betis make the trip to the Stadion Krestovskyi on the back of a 4-2 win at Levante in La Liga on the weekend. That result means Real Betis are undefeated in 8 of their last 9 games in all competitions.
They have been performing particularly well away from home, winning each of their last 4 on the road.
However, form in the Europa League shows Real Betis have won only 1 of their 4 most recent matches, all of which came in the group stage this season.
Their away form shows 1 win in their last 4 Europa League games but they have been difficult to beat on the road, losing only 2 of their last 9.
Trends show Real Betis have seen over 2.5 goals in their last 3 away games in Europa League and both teams have scored in 3 of their last 4 away trips in the competition.
Team news and Zenit have just one player unavailable with goalkeeper Stanislav Kritsyuk set to miss out due to a knee injury.
Real Betis could be without the injured duo of Claudio Bravo and Martin Montoya but every other player should be available.
Zenit have been playing in the Atlantic Cup but they are out of competitive match practice whereas Real Betis are flying in Spain. This should work in favour of the Spaniards and they could come out on top in this game, with over 2.5 goals and both teams scoring.