This week will see the start of the two-legged play-off ties in the Europa League and Thursday evening will feature this upcoming clash between Belgian hosts, Gent, and their Cypriot visitors, Omonia Nicosia, when the two teams meet in this 1st leg tie at the GHELAMCO-arena.
Gent will be seeking to collect a third win on the trot on Thursday night after picking up back to back wins in recent times in the Belgian top flight as the hosts registered wins against Westerlo and Oostende in 2-1 and 3-1 victories respectively and they now enter the final play-off phase of this season’s Europa League.
HONGNAMSTYLE!!! 💥 #kvognt pic.twitter.com/vYRhxQz5s8— KAA Gent (@KAAGent) August 12, 2022
HONGNAMSTYLE!!! 💥 #kvognt pic.twitter.com/vYRhxQz5s8
In the season before last, Gent had reached the group stage of the Europa League but it wasn’t a successful campaign on the European stage for the Belgian outfit as they finished rock bottom of Group L, failing to pick up a single point and losing all of their six group matches.
Nevertheless, Gent should have too much quality for their Cypriot visitors in this 1st leg despite losing their last three home ties on the trot in this competition.
Onto Omonia Nicosia, and the Cypriot visitors have yet to begin their domestic 1 Division season in Cyprus but their new campaign started with a disappointing 2-0 defeat at the hands of Apollon in the domestic Super Cup on Friday night.
At the end of last season, Omonia Nicosia won the Cyprus domestic cup final on penalties against Ethnikos Achna, to claim a spot in this season’s Europa League play-off ties and the visitors will be in fairly confident mood as they have been handed just three defeats out of their last 17 matches in all competitions.
Omonia Nicosia have also lost just two of their last 11 outings on the road across all competitions but when you switch to away ties at Europa League level, the visitors’ results are somewhat different.
The Cypriot outfit have picked up just two wins in their last 11 away ties at this level and have also failed to score in six of these 11 away ties as well, so this may not bode well for this upcoming 1st leg tie in Belgium on Thursday night.
Gent have lost just three of their previous 13 home ties in the Europa League and the hosts should secure a 1st leg lead here over Omonia.