Ajax v Nice Betting Tips: Shortage of goals unlikely at Amsterdam Arena

After a 1-1 draw in the French Riviera last week, this is one of the many Champions League ties that are finely poised ahead of the second-leg. As things stand, it is probably Ajax who’re the happier of the two teams as they both avoided defeat and got on the score-sheet away from home. Having said that, Nice will be pleased that they restricted the Dutch to just the one away-goal last week and will know that all it takes is an away-goal of their own to turn things in the Dutch capital.

As we saw last week, both of these two favour an attacking game and it’s unlikely that either will do too much sitting back here. In theory, Ajax could look to contain their visitors as they’d go through at 1-1 but that’s a dangerous game to play and, let’s face it, that’s not really the Dutch side’s game, especially not on their own patch. The result last week perhaps wasn’t a true reflection of either team’s efforts going forward and if both are in similar mood here, a shortage of goals doesn’t seem likely. At the prices, the bet that stands out is ‘Over 2.5 Goals & Both Teams to Score’.

During last season’s Europa League campaign, Ajax stood out as one of the most impressive teams from an attacking point of view and, despite losing a couple of players during the summer transfer window, their style isn’t likely to have changed much. Last week’s performance suggests that this is still very much a team who’re going to get on the front foot whenever possible. They scored last week and will be confident of doing so again here. What’s more, since the end of last season, they’ve played at home twice and have scored a total of seven goals. Both teams scored in each of those matches while at least three match goals did indeed go in.

Since the end of last season, a season that can be classed as a success as far as Lucien Favre and Nice are concerned, Nice have found themselves among the goals in pre-season. It’s important not to take too much from friendlies but if we combine such form with their performance in the first-leg last week, it’s easy to see the visitors getting plenty of attacking joy in this one. They’ve played away from home four times in pre-season, all four of which have seen at least three goals go in while both teams have scored in three of those. During last week’s match, the pace of midfielders Valentin Eysseric and Jean Seri caused the opposition defence plenty of problems while the enigmatic Mario Balotelli also proved to be a thorn in the side of Ajax’s back-line. With this in mind, it’s not hard at all to envisage the French outfit causing plenty of problems and ultimately scoring at least one away-goal in this match.

The overriding factor here is that neither looked too strong at the back last week and thus both could try to come through this one on attacking strength. Such tactics should make for an open game with plenty of chances at both ends, as was the case for much of the contest last week.

‘Over 2.5 Goals & Both Teams to Score’ has landed in eight of this pair’s last ten combined respective home and away matches and there’s every reason to think this selection will once again bank when they meet in Amsterdam on Wednesday evening.

More Champions League qualifying tips can be found here.