Football Tips

AEK Larnaca vs West Ham Match Preview, Free Bets & Predictions


After being handed a thrashing at the hands of Brighton, West Ham will now look for better fortunes in far sunnier climbs.

Some European Respite

There is no doubt that David Moyes’ status as West Ham manager is rather precarious and even if further European success is made, one wonders if league woes will eventually rid him of a job.

Really Hanging On

West Ham’s European tour has seen a number of dates in the calendar of the past couple of years and after reaching last season’s Europa League semi-final, the East London outfit will hope for better fortunes in the current edition of the Europa Conference League.

While it must be said that the draw for the Round of 16 has been rather favourable to the Hammers, as they have been paired with Cypriot outfit AEK Lanarca and although it may be unfair to label the Mediterranean side as minnows, they will not be far off from the status either.

Then again, West Ham are certainly not in a position to be overlooking opposition and with their Premier League form being as shaky as it is, a continental confidence boost is by no means guaranteed either.

Especially when you consider just how badly they performed last weekend at Brighton. A 4-0 defeat is always going to be difficult to swallow and even more so when the defending on show was rank bad.

A performance that was certainly West Ham’s worst of the season so far and even between now and May it will be incredibly hard to envisage a poorer showing than the one that unfolded at The AMEX.

The London Stadium side may not be in the bottom three of the Premier League table at the time of writing but may it only take one more negative result at the weekend to change that and if so, this competition may become more of an unwanted distraction.

At the same time, the fact that there is no obvious successor to David Moyes at present is perhaps keeping him in a job by default. Employed for now but at the same time is the former Manchester United boss nothing more than a dead man walking?

A question that we will find out within the next few days but before then this trip to Lanarca will have to be dealt with. The Cypriot’s got the better of Ukraine’s Dnipro-1 in last month’s play-off round, they are now just two matches away from the last eight.

Going into Thursday’s night fixture, the hosts find themselves second in Cyprus’ first division and a win over Enosis Paralimni at the weekend keeps them just two points current league leaders APOEL Nicosia.

That should set the stage for this midweek encounter and now it is time to look at the tips. First up, I am actually going to go for a result that may heap more pressure on David Moyes. Not defeat in Cyprus but a failure to win and the draw at 3/1 looks like it could burst a few bubbles.

Which means with the Hammers having issues in front of goal, I can also see this being the most boring draw of them all. No goals in Lanarca and with the 0-0 draw priced at 9/1, I think it is also worth a punt.

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AEK Larnaca vs West Ham

AEK Larnaca vs West Ham Tips

Our correct score prediction for AEK Larnaca vs West Ham

Dan Tracey

Dan is one of our resident football experts at Freebets, and also the host of our Freebets Odds On Podcast