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Steffen Schmidt - July 26, 2023
Linfield vs Pogon Szczecin
UEFA Conference League Qualification
Date: 27 July 2023, Thursday
Kick-off at 19:45 UK / 20:45 CET
Venue: Windsor Park (Belfast).
Linfield were lucky to survive a Vllaznia Shkoder test in the opening round of the UEFA Conference League qualifications, advancing past the Albanian outfit 3-2 on aggregate.
The Northern Irish side won the first leg 3-1 at home but then showed a dismal performance in the reverse leg, losing 1-0 in a match in which they registered no more than a single attempt towards the rivals’ goal. For context, Vllaznia ended the match with 17 shots on the occasion.
David Healy’s men will now face Polish Ekstraklasa outfit Pogon Szczecin in the second qualifying round with the first leg scheduled for Thursday evening at Windsor Park in Belfast.
The visitors enter the tie as big favorites due to the class difference between the two leagues. Also, it is important to note that Pogon have been on a rise in the last three years, finishing regularly inside the top four in the Ekstraklasa standings along the way.
Pogon were stopped by the likes of Osijek and Brondby in the previous two European campaigns.
They should have a great chance to finally reach the third qualifying round of a continental competition this time around.
They got off to a great start to the new Ekstraklasa campaign, beating Warta Poznan 0-1 on the road at the weekend.
Greek forward Efthymios Koulouris bagged the only goal of the game and he will no doubts represent the main threat to Linfield’s goal on Thursday alongside Slovenian striker Luka Zahovic.
Linfield did not thrive at all at the start of the qualifying campaign. They showed a horrendous display seven days ago at Vllaznia and we can’t see them staying competitive against a much stronger Polish opposition.
The away win is the main betting option at the 1.75 odds while we also like Pogon to keep a clean sheet on Thursday at the odds of 2.37.
