Varazdin vs Slaven Belupo Prediction & Match Preview

Steffen Schmidt - July 27, 2023

Varazdin vs Slaven Belupo
Croatian HNL
Date: 28 July 2023, Friday
Kick-off at 19:00 UK / 20:00 CET
Venue: Stadion Andjelko Herjavec (Varazdin).

Slaven Belupo could have hardly imagined a worse start to the new HNL campaign. They suffered one of the toughest defeats in team’s history last weekend, falling 6-1 away at Osijek who were particularly inspired in the first game at the new stadium on the occasion.

It was also a painful debut for Dutch manager Ricardo Moniz who took over Zoran Zekic between the two seasons.

Muniz is the type of manager who fancies attacking football which is natural given his country of birth but this style obviously leaves plenty of space at the back.

Slaven will have a very difficult task to bounce back on Friday evening when they open proceedings in Matchday No 2 with the trip to Varazdin and the clash at Stadion Andjelko Herjavec.

Varazdin were one of the most pleasant surprises of the last season in the top flight of Croatian football.

Many experts predicted them to be involved in a relegation scrap but they ended up just three points shy of the Conference League spots.

The fact Varazdin ended the season at the sixth place and only three points below Rijeka in fourth is even more impressive if we know they’ve had the second-worst defensive record in the entire league.

Head coach Mario Kovacevic does not seem to have fixed his team’s defensive holes if we are to judge by the preseason as Varazdin failed to keep a clean sheet in any of the last four games this summer.

They also drew 1-1 at HNK Gorica on the opening day of the new HNL campaign.

Varazdin vs Slaven Belupo Head-to-head

• Slaven lead the overall H2H tie by six wins going into the 57th encounter with Varazdin.
• However, Varazdin have been more successful in the history of H2H clashes on their turf, winning 11, drawing 11, and losing only 7 of the last 29 home games against Slaven Belupo.
• All but one of the last 13 head to head matches between these teams ended with fewer than three goals scored.

Varazdin vs Slaven Belupo Prediction

Despite the low-scoring tradition, we must say that this match has goals in it. Both Varazdin and Slaven are leaky at the back yet very much capable of producing in the final third, especially the hosts despite the fact they lost the top scorer from last season Tonio Teklic.

Both Teams To Score is our main betting option here at the 1.95 odds while you can hardly make a mistake backing the home win at the 1.95 odds either.

Varazdin vs Slaven Belupo Betting Tips

• Both Teams To Score @ 1.90 (9/10)

• Varazdin to win @ 1.95 (19/20) odd.