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Steffen Schmidt - August 24, 2021
HJK vs Fenerbahce
UEFA Europa League Qualification,
Date: Thursday, 26 August 2021
Kick-off 17:00 UK/ 18:00 CET
Venue: Bolt Arena.
It’s all wide open ahead of the reverse fixture of the UEFA Europa League playoffs tie between HJK and Fenerbahce. Can the Finnish champions shock the Turkish heavyweights?
Fenerbahce managed a narrow 1-0 victory seven days ago in Istanbul as substitute Mumammed Gumuskaya made the difference scoring the only goal of the game just three minutes after he replaced Mesut Ozil on the pitch.
It was a generally a close affair without too many goal-scoring opportunities at either end. We, however, have to underline Fenerbahce’s marvelous defensive showing as they limited the rivals to zero shots on target on the occasion.
Fenerbahce also got off to a fine start to the new Super Lig campaign. They clinched a maximum of six points from the opening two games of the new season.
Vitor Pereira’s troops saw off both Adana Demirspor and Antalyaspor without conceding a single goal in the process.
The Portuguese manager can generally be thrilled with his men’s defensive efforts at this stage of the season as Fenerbahce are yet to concede a goal in official games this summer (three matches – three wins).
HJK had much more action this summer, both in Finnish Veikkausliiga and in continental competitions.
They ended the UEFA Champions League journey with the 3-4 loss on aggregate to Swedish champions Malmo, but bounced back with a 5-2 aggregate victory over Neftci Baku in the previous round of the UEFA Europa League qualifications.
This will only be the second head to head encounter between the two outfits.
As we mentioned above, Fenerbahce picked up a narrow 1-0 victory in the first leg of this tie, played seven days ago in Istanbul.
Both HJK and Fenerbahce have looked very solid defensively in the last several weeks. The hosts kept three successive clean sheets in all competitions before falling 1-0 last week at Fenerbahce.
The Turkish outfit, on the other side, are yet to ship a goal this season. This is why the Under 2.5 goals FT is by far the best betting pick for this affair. You can back it at the odds of 1.85. Since we expect a close contest, the second bet would be draw at the half time at the 2.10 odds.
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