Union Saint-Gilloise vs Bodø/Glimt prediction — the Three Pundits debate (UEFA Champions League Qualification)

Five wins on the bounce, five clean sheets. Top of the Eliteserien and sixteen rounds sharp, while Union have played one competitive game all year — a Super Cup they couldn't even settle in normal time. And look where this is being staged. Not Joseph Marien, that ground doesn't pass UEFA. Ostend. Eight thousand seats, a hundred and fifteen kilometres from Brussels, buses laid on. A home leg on paper only. These are the lads who went to the Etihad and the Metropolitano last season and came back with the points. Bodo by one in Belgium. Mac Allister said it himself — they have rhythm, we're fresher. Fresher isn't a football team, Kevin.

Two things everyone's repeating tonight are simply false. Union aren't the Belgian champions — Brugge were, by four points. And they're not sharp, they've played ninety minutes and a shootout since May. Here's the one that actually matters. Union registered twenty-one players. Their new number one, Koffi, isn't eligible. Their five-million-euro midfielder isn't eligible. Leysen and Ait El Hadj aren't either. They sold Scherpen to Ipswich for ten million and what's left saved a penalty in a cup final, which is not the same thing as being a European goalkeeper. First legs are cagey though, so I'm not paying for a Norwegian party.

The squad list is the fact here, and it has only been reported in Dutch. Union named twenty-one of a possible twenty-five because they could not fill the homegrown quota, so Herve Koffi — the goalkeeper they bought to be first choice — is ineligible for this tie, along with a five-million-euro midfielder and two first-team regulars. They sold Scherpen for ten million and Chambaere is what remains. There is no bench behind this eleven in Europe, after ninety competitive minutes all season. Bodo come in on five straight clean sheets, full strength bar Evjen's knee, and they won away at Manchester City and Atletico last season. Rest is even at four days each, so neither side is tired and that argument is dead. Take the draw out of it and I have this close to even money, with 1xBet paying 2.19 on the visitors and your stake back if it ends level. That is the rung I want, not the quarter-goal one, which charges you for a draw this ticket already refunds.

I'll take the Norwegians and I don't even need the draw.

One goal in it, and I want my stake back if it finishes level.