Odd have rotated quite a bit in recent weeks to cope with playing in the league and Europa League. Canadian forward Olivier Occéan was left on the bench for both legs against the Finns but his 1st Leg goal and brace at the weekend means he may start here.
PAS Giannina F.C. will be a new name to many and they are playing in Europe for the first time here. Their qualification was via a 6th place finish in the Greek top flight last year but when you consider they lost as many games as they won and conceded more goals than they scored, they were perhaps a little fortunate to make it into the Europa League. They did end the season very strongly going unbeaten in their final 8 games but one worry here may well be that it is 3 months since they last played competitively. They’ve only played 1 official friendly since then and that was last week when they lost 2-1 to APOEL Nicosia of Cyprus. Therefore you have to worry about their levels of match sharpness.
Odd were involved in the 1st Qualifying Round and are also in the middle of their league season so they should be much the fitter of the two sides although they aren’t used to playing in the sort of heat they are likely to find at Stadio Zosimades on Thursday. They overcame Finnish side Mariehamn 3-1 on aggregate in the last round and won’t be devastated with this draw. Odd made it all the way to the play-off round last year where they briefly gave Borussia Dortmund a scare and they will fancy a good run again.
The Norwegians are in good form and have won four of their last 5 in all competitions, drawing the other. They are in 2nd place in the Norwegian top flight, just 3 points behind Rosenborg and cruised to a 4-1 victory over Aalesund at the weekend, the ideal preparation for this game. They are not perfect at the back but their extra match sharpness, European experience and perhaps a fraction more quality suggests they should get the better of PAS Giannina here and you can back Odd to Win 2-1 at 9/1. Watch Live stream free Click Here | Link 2#
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