The race to reach the group stages of the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League continues on Thursday night and as CSKA Sofia and FC Copenhagen meet in Bulgaria.
The match will be played at the Stadion Vasil Levski and is game between the team which finished second in the league in Bulgaria and fourth in the Danish league. Both teams qualified for the Europa League first qualifying round.
CSKA Sofia come into this match having started their domestic season well and trends show they have won each of their 3 matches. They have also played two ties in the Europa League to reach this stage of the competition so have plenty of competitive action behind them.
The Bulgarian’s started their Europa League campaign with a tie against Riga FC of Latvia. It was a tight affair and CSKA Sofia won the home leg 1-0 only to lose the away leg by the same score. This saw the match go to penalties and the Bulgarian team held their nerve to progress.
The second qualifying match proved more comfortable and CSKA Sofia won the home leg of the tie 3-0 against Admira Wacker of Austria. This gave them a good cushion to defend in the away leg and CSKA Sofia produced a good performance to win the away match 3-1 and continue to the third qualifying round with a 6-1 aggregate victory.
Trends show CSKA Sofia are undefeated in their last 8 home competitive games, winning 6 and drawing 2 plus they have kept a clean sheet in all 4 home matches this season.
FC Copenhagen have made a good start to the Danish SuperLiga season and sit second in the table having played 4 matches. They lost their first match of the season at home to Horsens but have since won 3 league games with the latest win coming at OB on the weekend.
In the Europa League, FC Copenhagen started with a tie against KuPS of Finland. Having won the away leg 1-0, the Danes were held to a 1-1 draw at home in the second leg but progressed to the second qualifying round winning 2-1 on aggregate.
The second qualifying round paired FC Copenhagen with Stjarnan of Iceland. This proved an easier tie and FC Copenhagen won the away leg 3-0 in Iceland before returning to Denmark for the second leg and winning 5-0.
Trends show FC Copenhagen are undefeated in each of their 4 away matches this season and are yet to concede a goal.
CSKA Sofia have no fresh injury or suspension concerns ahead of this game. They have a heavy Portuguese influence in their squad and four Portuguese players could start the game including 22-year-old striker Jorginho.
FC Copenhagen will be without the injured Jonas Wind and Pierre Bengtsson but could have Pieros Sotiriou available as the Cypriot has returned to training.
This has the makings of a very close match, with CSKA Sofia good defensively at home and FC Copenhagen likewise on the road. However, with the home advantage CSKA Sofia could have just enough to force a narrow win with under 2.5 goals.