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Steffen Schmidt - August 29, 2023
APOEL Nicosia vs Gent
UEFA Conference League Qualification
Date: 31 August 2023, Thursday
Kick-off at 18:00 UK / 19:00 CET
Venue: Neo GSP (Nicosia).
Gent continued their amazing run in this year’s UEFA Conference League Qualifications, picking up their fourth win five games in Europe this summer.
They saw off APOEL 2-0 seven days ago in the first leg of their playoffs tie on Belgian soil and are now massive favorites to advance to the group stage of the competition.
The second leg is scheduled for Thursday evening at Neo GSP where APOEL will face a very difficult task in an attempt to annul a two-goal deficit.
Gent have scored 18 goals in 5 Conference League qualifiers so far this summer. They did struggle a lot to break the deadlock last week against APOEL but eventually made it count via goals from Malick Fofana and Hong Hyun-Seok.
The likes of Hugo Cuypers and Emmanuel Gift are both connected to exotic transfers in the final days of the summer window which is why their recent displays have been subpar compared to the explosive start to the season.
Gent won four and drew one of the inaugural five matches of the new First Division A campaign. That said, the team led by Hein Vanhaezebrouck won just one of the last three games in all competitions, the mentioned 2-0 win over APOEL seven days ago.
The Cypriot side, on the other side, snapped their five-win run in all competitions with the aforementioned loss last week.
They have kept three successive clean sheets before the loss to Gent, twice against Georgian team Dila in the previous Conference League qualifying round and once more against AE Zakakikou at the start of the season in the elite class of Cypriot football.
This will be the second head to head meeting between the two rivals.
This is the clash between two opposite football styles. APOEL favor stern defense as the main strength while Gent play attractive-minded football at the start of the season under Vanhaezebrouck.
With full respect to the Cypriots, the quality is on Gent’s side and we like the 1.72 odds offered for Gent to win in a “Draw No Bet” option. Alternatively, we will shoot for the Under 2.5 goals FT bet at the 1.90 odds.
