Club Brugge v Manchester United match betting preview, prediction & free tip

Free football tips, best bets and analysis for Club Brugge v Manchester United in the Europa League.

Where to watch

BT Sport 2, 5.55pm Thursday

Best bet

Manchester United
1pt 6-4 general
Back this tip with bet365

Team news

Club Brugge Senegal striker Mbaye Diagne has been left out.

Manchester United Scott McTominay, Paul Pogba and Marcus Rashford are injured.

Club Brugge v Manchester United preview

Road wins at Manchester City and Chelsea on their last two away-days have thrilled the travelling hordes of Manchester United fans and should encourage punters to believe Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men can pull off a hat-trick in Bruges.

The Europa League is back and United could have done worse than pair up with Champions League discards Club Brugge in the round of 32.

The Belgians are on course to regain their title from Genk but Philippe Clement’s men aren’t playing particularly well and United can effectively put the tie to bed by winning in the Jan Breydel Stadium.

Brugge got to this stage courtesy of a fruitless Champions League campaign. They drew three and lost three in a tough section dominated by Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid. The draws came at the Bernabeu and home and away against Galatasaray, who they pipped for third spot.

They are unbeaten in 12 matches but struggling to win hearts and minds with the football they are producing and the Jupiler League really isn’t the strongest right now.

Brugge spent a decent pot of cash in the window to bring in striker Michal Krmencik from Viktoria Plzen but he looks a complete misfit and after just two starts he may be back on the bench.

Saturday’s 2-1 win over Waasland-Beveren, thanks to Mats Rits’ late effort, was pretty wretched stuff and their last four league games have produced the grand total of four goals.

United aren’t exactly full of goals themselves – their last six matches against top-flight opponents have produced only eight goals – and only one of their last nine Europa League away ties has featured over 2.5. That was the 2-1 loss at Astana in November, when Solskjaer left virtually his entire first team at home.

United will look to successfully manage this tie, which they clearly have a good record at doing, and a fifth straight clean sheet is very much on the cards.

Indeed, they kept five clean sheets in six in the group stage and looked fairly solid at the back at Chelsea despite conceding a couple of soft goals which they were grateful to see chalked off by VAR.

But Brugge look light in attack and it’s little surprise that under 2.5 is odds-on.

United also look short of firepower minus Marcus Rashford – they have bagged only three goals in the five games against Premier League opponents since the England man got crocked.

Anthony Martial scored a nice goal at Stamford Bridge but doesn’t look like a centre-forward and Mason Greenwood will presumably get a chance in Bruges.

Indeed, the United squad's top scorer in Europe this season is new boy Bruno Fernandes, who bagged five for Sporting in the group phase.