Thursday Football Tips: Back Denkey to make hay | OneFootball

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Kilmarnock's Rugby Park has an artificial surface

After two winners in the last three days, our football props column has an 11/2 shot for Kilmarnock's game in the Europa League on Thursday...

Kilmarnock v Cercle BruggeThursday 25 July, 19:30Live on BBC Scotland

Both of these sides finished fourth in their domestic leagues last season to qualify for the Europa League but one suspects there's a gulf in class between Scotland and Belgium.

Leg 1: Cercle to win

Outside the Old Firm, Scottish sides have struggled in Europe in recent years.

Only Celtic and Rangers have played in the Europa League group stage since its inception and while Aberdeen and Hearts have made it that far in the Conference League, neither made an impact.

In contrast, you only have to go back to last season to find three Belgian sides in the knockout stage of the Conference League, with Club Brugge - Cercle's city rivals - going all the way to the semi-finals.

Cercle, whose fortunes have been revived by Russian Dmitry Rybolovlev, are "trading on a different level in terms of the money involved," according to Killie boss Derek McInnes, and it's no surprise to see them odds-on.

The main worry for punters would be the artificial pitch at Rugby Park, although Cercle did win their only game on 'plastic' last season against Sint-Truiden.

Leg 2: Kevin Denkey to score 2+ goals

The risk worth taking to get a big price about the visitors looks to be to back last season's top scorer Kevin Denkey to score 2+ goals.

The Togo international was the Belgian League's top scorer last season as he managed 28 in all competitions.

Crucially, that amounted to a whopping 47% of all goals his team scored - the 23-year-old is by far and away their main threat.

He bagged 2+ goals in six of 28 regular-season league games and, notably, five of those were against sides in the bottom half of the table.

So, if you subscribe to the theory that there is a bit of a gulf in class here, then Denkey could make hay.

He's already scored in pre-season and takes penalties.

Recommended bets

Back Cercle Brugge to win & Kevin Denkey to score 2+ goals @ around 11/2

Column P/L 2024/25

Staked: 10pts Returned: 14.4pts P/L: +4.4pts

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