- Basel form: Basel have won four of their last five Super League fixtures and are on a two-game winning streak.
- Young Boys form: Young Boys have won three, drawn one and lost one of their last five Super League games.
Basel and Young Boys are a good bet to get at it
FC Basel will head into Saturday’s Swiss Super League showdown with BSC Young Boys Bern as the favourite for three points because they have home-field advantage and are in better form, but the visitors could be dangerous.
Basel are third in the Super League table with 52 points from 31 games, while Young Boys are sixth with 46 points from 31 games. The hosts will feel they should win in front of their own fans, but have to respect their visitors, who have been hard to beat on the road of late.
The Bern-based club have avoided defeat in their last two away games, winning both, but they have lost seven of their previous 16 away Super League trips, which is a concern. Basel have won seven, drawn five and lost three of their 15 at home, so home-field advantage is on their side.
Basel’s structure should be solid enough to beat the visitors
Recent meeting
The last meeting between these sides, which was at Young Boys’ home stadium four months ago, finished 0-0 in the Super League, so we don’t expect the game to be a one-way affair either.
Tactics and key players
Stephan Lichtsteiner has brought a lot of discipline to his Basel side, who operate in a compact 4-2-3-1 system that looks to build up play from the back while Xherdan Shaqiri provides the flair and creativity from the No.10 position. Young Boys, by contrast, play a very different style of soccer, with Gerardo Seoane favouring a high-press, high-energy game in which they overload the central areas and look to hit on the counter. Alvyn Sanches has been in red-hot form for Young Boys of late, scoring four times in his last five appearances, but Chris Bedia is their main attacking threat overall with 15 in 30 Super League appearances.
Sides evenly matched on paper
This clash of styles will be intriguing to watch and could lead to an end-to-end game in which both teams score plenty of goals.
Basel have scored an average of 2.5 goals per game when they have hosted Young Boys, which have averaged 4.0 goals with Young Boys averaging 1.5.
An away goal looks likely, given Young Boys’ record of conceding 2.31 goals on the road, so the over 2.5 goals market at 1.4 looks very attractive to us. Both teams to score is also a strong bet at 1.33, but we’ll take Basel to nick the win at 2.45 because their home form is better and they are more solid at the back.
- Basel have hit 1.47 goals per Super League game at home this season, conceding just 0.80 per game.
- Young Boys have scored 1.62 per Super League match but conceded a worryingly high average of 2.31 on the road.
