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Steffen Schmidt - July 10, 2023
HJK vs Larne
UEFA Champions League Qualification
Date: 12 July 2023, Wednesday
Kick-off at 17:00 UK / 18:00 CET
Venue: Bolt Arena (Helsinki).
Larne will make their debut in the UEFA Champions League qualifications on Wednesday afternoon when they head north to face Finnish champions HJK in the first leg of the opening round tie at Bolt Arena.
Larne won their maiden domestic league title last season to continue a marvelous journey that began in 2018 with the Kenny Bruce takeover.
The team went from second class football to Northern Irish Premiership trophy in four years. It will be very interesting to see how the team led by Tiernan Lynch will cope with a much more experienced European side in this matchup.
HJK, who are back-to-back-to-back Finnish champions, are massive favorites in this tie. They have played the group phase of the UEFA Europa League last season after eliminating the likes of Maribor and Silkeborg in the qualifications.
HJK, however, managed to claim just one point in six group stage outings against Roma, Real Betis, and Ludogorets.
The hosts’ favorites’ tag is even bigger if we know they are already in a competitive rhythm with 16 Veikkausliiga matches behind them this year.
That said, Toni Koskela’s men are only third in the league table this season, sitting three points shy of leaders SJK who have two games in hand as well.
Larne, on the other side, suffered a 0-2 defeat to Crusaders in the Northern Irish Super Cup tie on the first day of July.
The new season in their elite class will not start before August 7th. Larne did not have a great European run last year, suffering an elimination at the start of their Conference League adventures without scoring a single goal over two legs against Gibraltar’s St. Joseph’s.
Everything speaks in HJK’s favor and we expect the hosts to remove all doubts about the winner of this double-header in the first leg in front of the home fans in Helsinki.
We thus like both HJK to win in -1.5 Asian Handicap at the 1.72 odds and HJK to win to nil at the 1.83 odds.
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