Union Saint Gilloise v Lugano

Union St Gilloise vs Lugano Preview

Onto Brussels next, and a look ahead to this upcoming play-off 1st leg clash between Belgian hosts, Union St Gilloise and their Swiss counterparts, Lugano, when the two teams face off at the Stade Joseph Mariën and both sides will be keen to get ahead in this opening leg.

Union St Gilloise return to the more familiar surroundings of home soil for this Thursday's clash and having been dealt a heavy 4-0 defeat away from home at Mechelen in the Belgian top flight on the weekend, Union St Gilloise will be eager to make home advantage count here.

The bigger picture shows the Belgian hosts have lost just three games in their last 13 matches overall which includes picking up seven wins in the process, three of which have been collected in this season's new domestic First Division A campaign in the form of victories over Anderlecht, Standard Liege and OH Leuven, the latter being a particularly comprehensive 5-1 thrashing of their visitors.

Four wins from their last six games on home soil at their Stade Joseph Mariën should give Union St Gilloise confidence that they can get ahead in this two-legged tie, especially as the hosts have lost just twice in their previous 10 home ties in the Europa League.

Lugano have also made a promising start on the domestic front in their respective Swiss top flight campaign as the visitors have won three of their opening four games with victories collected against Stade-Lausanne-Ouchy, St Gallen and Yverdon Sport, the latter being a 6-1 home win.

The bigger picture should also give the Swiss visitors plenty of confidence of gaining a positive result here on Thursday night as Lugano have suffered just two defeats in their last 19 matches while also picking up 12 wins during this period as well, but it's worth bearing in mind that both of these losses were dealt to Lugano on their travels.

Switching to results away from home in the Europa League and you'll see that Lugano have really struggled to gain positive results on the road at this level and in addition to possessing limited experience in this competition, Lugano have also managed to capture just one win in their previous seven away ties.

That rare success was a 2-1 win at Steaua Bucharest but five defeats within these seven away ties suggest this upcoming trip to face Union St Gilloise could be an uphill battle for the Swiss outfit.

Union St Gilloise v Lugano Verdict

Out of these two sides heading into this 1st leg, it's the hosts, Union St Gilloise, that look the more likely to get a leg up in this opening encounter.

Therefore, our main bet will be Union St Gilloise @ 1.57

Other side bets worth considering:

Union St Gilloise win & Over 2.5 goals @ 2.20

Correct score: Union St Gilloise 2-1 @ 8.50