Mark Allen and Alan McManus meet in the European Masters today in what could be a close encounter. McManus, the world number 31, has three defeats in his last six matches and needs to find his form quickly if he is to find a way past Allen. The Scot did claim a convincing win over Yuan Sijun in the first round of the European Masters but Allen will provide a much sterner test that China’s Sijun, who is ranked outside the top 100.
Northern Ireland’s Allen has won the only previous meeting between the two and has been in fairly good form of late with four wins in his last five matches. The 31-year-old struggled in his first couple of ranking tournaments this season but did reach the last four of the World Open and will be keen to back that up with another big showing at the European Masters in Belgium.
Allen will face either Ben Woollaston or Gerard Greene in the next round if he gets past McManus, and the world number nine would fancy his chances of beating both if he does progress on Wednesday. Allen is the 2/5 favourite to come out on top and McManus can be backed at 15/8. A 4-3 win for Allen is 15/4 and McManus is 5/1 to win by the same score.
European Masters odds available at Dafabet.