On Thursday evening, Linfield face a massive game in the Europa League play-offs, as the Northern Irish side hosts Qarabag from Azerbaijan.
Like the hosts, Qarabag have already suffered elimination from the Champions League this season, having suffered defeat in the third qualifying round against APOEL.
However, the guests head into this clash as favourites and will be expecting to make the group stages, just as they did last season.
Qarabag lost five of their six group stages matches, but even making it to that stage of one of European football’s major competitions was already a big achievement.
Despite making the group stages of the competition last season, Qarabag have a terrible recent record in the Europa League, losing eight of their last ten matches in Europe’s secondary competition.
Linfield exited the Champions League at the first qualifying round, as they suffered a 6-0 aggregate defeat against Norwegian team Rosenborg.
The home side have since beaten HB of the Faroe Islands and Montenegrin team Sutjeska in the Europa League. Neither side were exactly stellar opponents and Linfield should face a bigger test against Qarabag.
David Healy’s team have been relatively prolific this season in this competition, scoring at least two goals in three of their four games in the Europa League.
https://t.co/QviWkGWw5H— Linfield FC (@OfficialBlues) August 21, 2019
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Forebet predicts that Qarabag will record a victory in a high-scoring clash.