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Steffen Schmidt - August 29, 2023
HJK vs Farul Constanta
UEFA Conference League Qualification
Date: 31 August 2023, Thursday
Kick-off at 17:00 UK / 18:00 CET
Venue: Bolt Arena (Helsinki).
HJK are looking to avoid the third consecutive elimination from European competitions this summer on Thursday evening when they host Farul Constanta in the second leg of the UEFA Conference League playoffs.
Finnish champions and the current Veikkausliiga leaders suffered a 2-1 defeat in the first leg of this tie seven days ago on Romanian soil.
They have not shown pretty much anything in the final third aside from Joona Toivio’s goal last Thursday.
HJK finished the first leg with only two attempts towards the rivals’ goal and they will need to improve their display drastically to annul the deficit in this reverse tie.
The team from Finnish capital featured in the UEFA Europa League group stage last year, coming fourth in the section with Roma, Real Betis, and Ludogorets.
They have been eliminated by Molde and Qarabag so far in Europe this summer, scoring just three goals in four outings along the way.
Farul, on the other side, have not had any problems with the likes of Urartu and Flora in the previous two Conference League qualifying ties, bagging eleven goals across four matches along the way.
Gheorghe Hagi’s men now have four wins in the last five games across competitions, a run that includes a 2-0 victory over Universitatea Craiova on Sunday.
The first H2H encounter between these two teams saw Farul’s dominance from the start to the end of the game.
We expect a tight contest in the reverse fixture. HJK will not rush for an early goal having experienced Farul’s quality seven days ago. The Under 2.5 goals FT pick has value at the 1.85 odds.
We trust the visitors much more here and we are happy to take Farul Constanta not to lose at the 1.57 odds.
