Europa League qualifiers: Thursday games
Aston Villa begin life without James Milner as they travel to Austria to face Rapid Vienna on Thursday night in the first leg of their Europa League play-off clash.
The England midfielder has finally completed his long-drawn out move to Manchester City and there can be little doubt he'll be a huge loss to the midlands outfit. Since taking temporary charge in the wake of Martin O'Neill's sudden exit from Villa Park just five days before the start of the Premier League season, MacDonald has quickly earned the support of his players and is firm favourite with the bookies to land the job on a full-time basis. If Villa can avoid defeat in this away leg, the 49-year-old Scot would further boost his claims but it's going to be a tough assignment. Of course this time last year it was Rapid Vienna who knocked the Midlands side out of the competition in the play-off round on away goals having won the first leg 1-0 at the Gerhard Hanappi Stadium before scoring a late goal in the 2-1 defeat at Villa Park. Rapid will realistically need to take an advantage back to England if they're to have a good chance of reaching the group stages again and it looks like they've found some momentum following a poor start to their domestic campaign. Having finished third in last season's Austrian Bundesliga, Rapid opened up with back-to-back defeats, starting with a crushing 4-0 loss at FC Wacker Innsbruck, but they've since won the next two games against Red Bull Salzburg and Sturm Graz. More importantly Rangers target Nikica Jelavic, who netted both his team's goals over the two legs against Villa last season, is bang in form. The 24-year-old has already fired six goals so far this season, including four in as many Europa League qualifying round games, and he's rated at 2.87 to strike anytime on Thursday night. A lot depends on whether Jelavic actually play because Rangers are still hoping to snap him up before the first leg so he doesn't become cup-tied for their Champions League campaign. However Rapid's sporting director Alfred Hortnagl said: "Rangers made an approach and we held talks, only for them to pull out of any deal last week as they told us they were signing another player (James Beattie). "Jelavic accepted this and promised full commitment to us. For us the matter was done, but then Rangers came back in for him earlier this week. "But we cannot let go such an important player a few days before such an important match. At this time we cannot agree to this transfer." Meanwhile Milner's new club Manchester City should be expected to waltz into the Europa League group stages as they gear up for the first leg of their play-off clash away at FC Timisoara. The Romanian outfit are somewhat of an unknown quantity but having finished fifth in their domestic league last season it's hard to see them possessing the quality to trouble the expensively assembled stars of City, who are 1.60 to win this clash. During the current campaign Timisoara have drawn three of their opening four games, which have seen 15 goals, while they overcame MYPA 5-4 on aggregate in the previous Europa League qualifying round. Therefore, when you also bare in mind the attacking talents that Roberto Mancini has at his disposal, goals could well flow on Thursday night and that's going to be the focus of our attention. The likes of David Silva, Carlos Tevez, Emmanuel Adebayor and even Mario Balotelli, who has registered in time, could be too hot to handle and the 3.20 on offer with Boylesports about there being over 3.5 goals in the match looks very tempting indeed. Liverpool have made an encouraging start under Roy Hodgson and will be hoping to put one foot into the group stages when they host Trabzonspor on Thursday night. The club's dreadful 2009/10 season is now fading into just a distant memory and the Reds now appear to have regrouped with a new lease of life as they set about the challenge of fighting for honours again. Hodgson managed to convince star duo Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard to commit their futures to Anfield while the recruitment of Joe Cole, Milan Jovanovic and Christian Poulsen ensures their squad is stronger than last year. Lucas or Christian Poulsen are most likely to take over from the injured Javier Mascherano in midfield and they should be able to nullify the Turkish side's chances of snatching an away goal. Liverpool brushed aside Rabotnicki Kometal 4-0 on aggregate in the third qualifying round - winning both legs 2-0 - and we can foresee another comfortable victory to nil against an average Turkish side, who finished fifth in the Super Lig last season. READ OUR BLOG ON THE GAME BETWEEN However that is a bit too short for us to back at 1.25 with Ladbrokes so instead we'll divert our attention to the anytime goalscorer market where Martin Skrtel could be worth a punt at 8.50 with Bet365. The towering Slovakia international defender, who has signed a new two-year contract extension, went close with a header in the 1-1 draw against Arsenal on Sunday and can continue to provide a threat from set plays. There are three Scottish sides also in action on Thursday night and we'll start with Celtic's home clash with FC Utrecht. The Hoops' Champions League dreams were shattered when losing 4-2 on aggregate against Sporting Braga but they must put that massive disappointment behind them ahead of this first leg, for which they are a best of 4/5 with Betfred to win. In the opening round of SPL fixtures at the weekend Paddy McCourt's superb second-half goal gave Celtic a 1-0 victory at Inverness to restore some of their lost confidence and they'll be hoping the Parkhead crowd can further lift their spirits against the Dutch outfit. Neil Lennon has brought seven new players to the club this summer in a bid to boost their chances of regaining the SPL title although the most recent of those, Honduras left-back Emilio Izaguirre, won't be available to play on Thursday night. Overall we feel Celtic should have too much for a side that only booked their place in the Europa League via the Dutch play-off system last season having finished a mediocre seventh in the Eredivisie, scoring just 39 goals. While the hosts to win to nil at 2/1 with Sky Bet does have appeal, the main threat to this bet appears to be 21-year-old striker Ricky van Wolfswinkel, who has found the net six times in as many games so far, including three in their Europa League qualifying games. He is 3.40 with Bet365 to score anytime and that must be worth strong consideration. Motherwell look well suited to the European scene having already beaten Icelandic league leaders Breidablik and Norwegian cup holders Aalesund with the loss of just one goal - and that was from the penalty spot - in the previous rounds. However last year's runners-up in Denmark, Odense, are a seeded team and must be considered much stiffer opposition. They possess a couple of familiar faces in Roy Carroll and Eric Djemba-Djemba while the man Motherwell will be keen to stop is Peter Ukata, who was last season's top scorer in Denmark with 18 goals and also struck twice in a 5-2 triumph over Zrinjski in the first leg of the third qualifying round. OB head into the clash on the back of a 3-1 away win over Sonderjyske but they might find it hard to break down the 4-5-1 formation employed by Craig Brown in European games. Motherwell lost 3-2 at home to Hibernian at theweekend but they're on a roll in Europe and we fancy them to get a creditable draw, which is priced at 3.60 with bet365. Dundee United face potentially the toughest challenge as they host Greek outfit AEK Athens, who are aiming to reach the group stages for the second successive year. The Greek season has yet to start so this is AEK's first competitive game but they've enjoyed an impressive pre-season, picking up victories over Blackburn, Rangers and the tournament hosts to win the Sydney Festival of Football. They have high hopes of finally ending their long wait of a first Greek title since 1994 and have signed promising Brazilian youngster Eder and former Portsmouth midfielder Papa Bouba Diop to help their cause as well as bringing veteran striker Nikolaos Liberopoulos back to the club. Last season's Scottish Cup winners began their SPL campaign with a 1-1 draw at St Mirren but only after Jon Daly popped up in the 89th minute for a last-gasp equaliser. They will need an advantage from the first leg at Tannadice but AEK are a dangerous side and should be backed at 2.37 with Ladbrokes to take victory. PICKS: 
Milner scored the third goal in their comfortable 3-0 victory over West Ham on Saturday although their all-round team performance will give caretaker boss Kevin MacDonald plenty of optimism for Thursday night.
PARIS S.G AND MACCABI TEL AVIV. CLICK HERE
READ OUR BLOG ON THE GAME BETWEEN
PARIS S.G AND MACCABI TEL AVIV. CLICK HERE
