Thursday Football Tips: Roma's in-form Dovbyk the focus in 9/2 Bet Builder | OneFootball

Bet of the Day

Ukrainian forward Artem Dovbyk can hit the target again in Roma v Athletic Bilbao

Paul Higham has crunched the stats and come up with a 9/2 Bet Builder double for Thursday's Europa League tie in Rome.

Roma vs Athletic BilbaoThursday 26 September20:00 BST kick-off

New Roma boss Ivan Juric started his tenure with a 3-0 win over Udinese on Sunday, and the club will hope that new manager bounce can run into their Europa League opener against Athletic Bilbao.

The Giallorossi have been consistent European challengers over the last few years - winning the 2022 Europa Conference League, making the 2023 Europa League final and the semis last year.

Bilbao have also had a recent up-turn in fortunes after a slow start, winning four of their last five ahead of their return to European football for the first time in seven years.

Ernesto Valverde's men moved up into third in La Liga with their third straight win, scoring eight goals in the process, so they'll provide plenty of threat in Rome.

Leg 1: Oihan Sancet 1+ shot on target

Let's kick-off with Athletic, who have an injury worry over star man Nico Williams so we need to look at other options (although if he starts then 10/11 for him to get a shot on target needs looking at).

Williams' brother Inaki is a short price for a player with just two shots on target this season, so at a lively 7/5 we'll back Oihan Sancet for 1+ shot on target.

Sancet is their top scorer in La Liga with three goals and also a team-leading four shots on target - all coming in four different games - so with or without Nico Williams he looks a decent shout at a nice price.

We'll pair Sancet with Roma's main threat Artem Dovbyk, who has just hit form with goals in his last two games and it usually pays to side with the man with the hot hand.

The Ukrainian has had five shots on target in those last two games, and is 6/5 for 2+ shots on target here to make it three games in a row with multiple efforts on goal.

He's had three attempts on goal in four out of five games so volume hasn't been an issue, but the quality of chances and his accuracy have just started to hit an upward curve.

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Recommended bets

Back Sancet 1+ shot on target & Dovbyk 2+ shots on target @ 9/2

COLUMN P/L 24/25

Staked: 70pts Returned: 93.12pts P/L: +23.12pts

2023/24 P/L: +16.78pts 2022/23 P/L: +68.69pts