The lucrative group stages of the 2022/23 Champions League are edging ever closer and on the 26th of July we have a second qualifying round meeting between FC Sheriff Tiraspol and NK Maribor.
The match will be played at the Bolshaya Sportivnaya Arena and the tie is level at 0-0 following the first leg in Slovenia last week.
FC Sheriff Tiraspol are yet to begin their domestic league title defence in Moldova and their only competitive games to date this season have been in Champions League qualifying. Therefore, FC Sheriff Tiraspol did not have a fixture on the weekend and have been getting themselves ready for this second leg.
They have played 3 matches in the Champions League this season and remain undefeated. FC Sheriff Tiraspol started their campaign in the first qualifying round and were held to a 0-0 at Zrinjski Mostar in Bosnia.
FC Sheriff Tiraspol took command of the second leg at home by scoring via an own goal in the 22nd minute and did not concede to progress 1-0 on aggregate.
FC Sheriff Tiraspol have recorded some good results in the Champions League and beat both Real Madrid away and Shakhtar Donetsk at home in the group stages last season. Trends show there have been under 2.5 goals scored in FC Sheriff Tiraspol’s 4 most recent Champions League games and they have kept a clean sheet in each of their last 3 fixtures in the competition.
NK Maribor travel to the Bolshaya Sportivnaya Arena having recorded a 3-2 home win over Gorica in the 1. SNL on the weekend. NK Maribor fell a goal behind in the 17th minute but came back strongly to score 3 goals of their own in a 32-minute period either side of half time. Gorica got a goal back in the 61st minute but NK Maribor kept them out for the remainder of the game.
That result means NK Maribor are undefeated in 4 of their 5 competitive matches this season. Three of those 5 games have come in the Champions League and NK Maribor started their campaign with a 0-0 draw at home against Shakhtyor.
NK Maribor had work to do in the away leg in Belarus and came away with a good 2-0 victory, with the goals coming at the beginning of both halves.
However, trends show NK Maribor have recorded only 1 win from their 6 most recent Champions League fixtures. They are undefeated in 3 of their last 5 on the road, with wins coming at Valur and Shakhtyor.
NK Maribor have been scoring goals when playing away in the Champions League have found the back of the net in each of their last 5 UCL games on the road.
Team news and FC Sheriff Tiraspol are likely to go with the same team that started the win over Zrinjski Mostar. That means there will not be any Moldovan players in the starting XI and a strong African contingent, including players from Nigeria, Guinea, Ghana, and Burkina Faso.
NK Maribor on the other hand have several players from Slovenia in their team. Martin Milec, Nemanja Mitrovič, Gregor Sikošek, Jan Repas, and Danijel Šturm are among those expected to start.
Both teams find themselves in the same position they did in the first qualifying round second leg. In the previous round, NK Maribor won 2-0 away but they could find it tougher at FC Sheriff Tiraspol.
We expect the home team win with a clean sheet and under 2.5 goals scored.