West Ham United vs Birkirkara FC [Europa league qualifier]

The second round of the Europa qualifications as teams give it all to get to the group stages. This is the first leg and West Ham will be playing at home-Upton Park against Maltese side Birkirkara FC. Here are the statistics and our predictions:

West Ham

West Ham have started the Europa league qualifiers on a high-note. With the new manager, Slaven Bilic who took over in May, the Hammers haven't disappointed at all. In the last match, on second round of qualification, the squad thrashed Lusitanos (Andronnan Champs) 4 - 0 on aggregate. Thursday they'll play against Birkirkara FC who finished 3rd place in Maltese league.
Below are results from their recent games;

2nd July

West Ham - FC Lusitanos [ 3 - 0 ]

9th July

FC Lusitanos - West Ham [ 0 - 1 ]

11th July

Peterborough - West Ham [ 3 - 3 ]

New signings to the West Ham side include Peter Obiang ( from Sampdoria ), Angelo Ogbonna ( Juventus ) and Dimitri Payet.
Diafra Sakho will be suspended due to the red card in the match against Lusitanos.

Birkirkara FC

Birkirkara FC advanced with a 3 - 1 aggregate victory against Ulysses in the first round. The squad who are first-time qualifiers' of the second round later won 3 - 1 in Yerevan to qualify for the final round against West Ham on Thursday. Last season, the team won the fifth Maltesse FA trophy and finished third in the league table. No major signings have been added to the squad and therefore, the squad will depend on Fabrizio Miccoli who' scored twice against Ulysses.
Here are results from their recent matches;

2nd July

Birkirkara FC - Ulysses [ 0 - 0 ]

9th July

Ulysses - Birkirkara FC [ 3 - 1 ]

Currently, West Ham United are on form and this match is expected to be rather one-sided considering home advantage. The Hammers are a tougher team as compare to Birkirkara both physically in terms of players and financially in relation to new signings.
The two teams have never met before but Bilic is expected to select a strong XI considering all players who'd been on training in Ireland have joined the squad. We predict a win to West Ham with a scoreline of over 2.5 goals.

West Ham To Win: 
Birkirkara FC To Win: