On Thursday night, Ballymena United host NSI Runavik at the Showgrounds, in the Europa League preliminary round first leg.
The two clubs have very different histories in the Europa League. Ballymena are fairly new to the Europa League, while the visitors are now experienced campaigners in the early rounds of the competition.
The Northern Irish hosts have only appeared in the Europa League in one previous season. Their one campaign in the Europa League came back in 2017 when they suffered a 5-0 aggregate defeat at the hands of Norwegian side Odd. A 3-0 defeat in Norway in the first leg almost rendered the second leg pointless. The Irish side also lost the second leg, suffering a 2-0 defeat.
The home side also finished last season in an unconvincing fashion. However, despite their inexperience and lack of form heading into this clash, they are the favourites to gain a first-leg lead. Forebet also predicts that the home side will record a victory in a high-scoring clash.
NSI Runavik have gained valuable European experience in the Europa League in recent seasons. Unfortunately, for the team from the Faroe Islands, their recent results have been far from positive.
In fact, the visitors have now suffered six straight defeats in the Europa League, while conceding at least twice in all six defeats. NSI have also suffered defeats in 18 of their 20 games in this competition. Ironically, their only Europa League win came against another Northern Irish team, as they recorded a 4-3 home win over Linfield back in 2015.
Unsurprisingly, NSI have lost all ten of their away games in this competition, while conceding at least twice in all the defeats.
Ballymena may never get a better chance of picking up their first Europa League win than Thursday night’s game. A victory would put them firmly in the driving seat to book their place in the next round of the competition.