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Steffen Schmidt - July 18, 2023
Honka vs Tobol Kostanay
UEFA Conference League Qualification
Date: 20 July 2023, Thursday
Kick-off at 17:00 UK / 18:00 CET
Venue: Myyrmaen jalkapallostadion (Vantaa).
Tobol Kostanay pulled off a second-half comeback in a fantastic display against Finnish side Honka last week in Kazakhstan.
Miljan Vukadinovic was the team’s hero with a second-half brace on the occasion. Interestingly, the Serbian winger has only scored 1 goal in 13 domestic league appearances for Tobol.
Speaking of the domestic league, the team from Kostanay are only sixth after 15 rounds in the Kazakh Premier League.
Nevertheless, they have been in good from lately with eight wins in the last ten games in all competitions, including a double-header win over Atyrau in the Kazakh cup semifinal.
Tobol were generally a much better team on the pitch than Honka seven days ago, allowing the rivals no more than two attempts in the 90 minutes of action on the occasion.
We thus have reasons to expect another successful day for Kazakh outfit on Thursday afternoon when the two teams meet each other in the second leg in Vantaa.
Honka did not offer much at all last week in Kostanay. They did get the first-half lead after a rare trip to the rivals’ half but outside from Lucas Kaufmann’s strike, we did not see anything from the Finnish side on the occasion.
It is also worth mentioning that Honka failed to score a goal in a 1-0 defeat to SJK in their previous domestic league match played twelve days ago.
We are surprised to see Honka as the favorites in the second leg despite Tobol’s dominance last week in Kazakhstan. We see the value in backing the visitors to win at the attractive 2.75 odds.
Alternatively, you can back Tobol Kostanay to keep a clean sheet at the 3.40 odds knowing they have conceded just one goal in the last four matches in all competitions.
