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Steffen Schmidt - August 29, 2023
Breidablik vs Struga
UEFA Conference League Qualification
Date: 31 August 2023, Thursday
Kick-off at 17:45 UK / 18:45 CET
Venue: Kopavogsvollur (Kopavogur).
Breidablik have a huge opportunity to make history and advance to the group stage of a European competition for the first time ever on Thursday evening when they host Struga in the UEFA Conference League playoffs return leg at Kopavogsvollur.
The Icelandic side picked up a narrow 1-0 win on the road in the first leg seven days ago in North Macedonia.
The game itself could have gone either way, especially early on when the North Macedonians scored but had a goal disallowed for a foul.
Breddablik got a breakthrough just seven minutes after that disallowed goal and managed to hold on to the lead until the end of what was a very nervous and intense affair with eight yellow cards and one red (Struga’s Vangjel Zguro).
The team led by Oskar Hrafn Torvaldsson snapped their three-win streak across competitions with a tough 5-3 defeat at the hands of Icelandic Urvalsdeild leaders Vikingur Reykjavik on Sunday.
It will be very interesting to see whether this defeat will affect the players’ display on Thursday.
Struga, on the other side, head into this off the back of three subsequent defeats across competitions, a run that includes a 1-2 defeat to Akademija Pandev in the early stages of the top flight of North Macedonian football.
The visitors were eliminated by Lithuanian side Zalgiris at the start of their UEFA Champions League qualifying campaign before eliminating Buducnost Podgoricxa and Swift Hesperange in the previous two UEFA Conference League qualifying rounds.
For context, Struga eliminated Buducnost 5-3 on aggregate, while Breidablik destroyed the Montenegrin side 5-0 in the UEFA Champions League preliminary round.
The stakes are high for both outfits and we expect another tight and nervous affair with lots of fouls and cards. In these circumstances, we like the Under 2.5 goals FT pick at the 1.95 odds.
Breidablik came on top seven days ago and we fancy their chances even more this time around in front of the home fans in Kopavogur. The home win is paid at the 1.80 odds.
