Champions League Qualifying - Molde v Basel

Molde coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer will look to gain some revenge on Basel for knocking his old team Manchester United out of the Champions League last season.  Solskjaer who was reserve coach at United from 2008 to 2010 will be looking for the assistance of his old club in helping his current side figure out how to defy the odds and put the Swiss champions out.

Molde got through to this stage of the qualifiers after a strong showing against Ventspils of Latvia in the second qualifying round.  They took the first leg comfortable with a 3-0 win at home and held the Latvians to a 1-1 draw in Latvia.  Molde currently sit second in the Norwegian top league on 32 points after 17 matches.  They trail leaders Stromsgodset by 6 points and have been in poor recent form drawing their last match at Lillestrom and losing at home to Viking.

Basel’s had an easy passage into this qualifying round after dispatching Flora of Estonia in the last round.  They took the first leg 2-0 away from home then finished the tie off with an easy 3-0 home win, this match should provide a much tougher test however.  Basel has recently started the defence of their Swiss title but has stumbled out the blocks during the first three games.  After an opening day win away at Servette they have been held to back to back 2-2 draws.  This is still good enough for 3^rd place currently but they are already 4 points behind leaders Sion so will be aiming to shore up their defence and turn these draws into wins.

Despite being away from home Basel are favourites for the first leg at 2.4 with Molde at 2.98 and the draw at 3.6.  With each teams recently propensity to concede goals I’m going to concentrate on the total goal market where I like the bet Over 2.5 goals @ 1.84