On Thursday evening, Riga host Celtic at the Stadions Skonto in the Europa League third-round qualifying round, as both teams look to qualify for the next round of the competition.
Riga kicked off the season in the Champions League but suffered a 2-0 defeat against Maccabi Tel Aviv. However, the Latvian team bounced back by recording a 1-0 win over San Marino outfit Tre Fiori in the last round of the Europa League.
The result means that the home side has suffered just one defeat in their last six outings in Europe’s secondary competition. However, Riga have won just three of their previous nine matches in the Europa League.
🗣️ "We know it’s going to be hard and different with it being only one leg. We’ll have to deal with that on the day and make sure we turn up and get a good result."@ScottBrown8 looking forward to #RIGCEL 👊— Celtic Football Club (@CelticFC) September 23, 2020
🗣️ "We know it’s going to be hard and different with it being only one leg. We’ll have to deal with that on the day and make sure we turn up and get a good result."@ScottBrown8 looking forward to #RIGCEL 👊
The Latvian team has been strong on home soil, going four games unbeaten, having recorded three wins in the process in the competition.
Riga’s recent home matches in the competition have been tight and low-scoring, with under 2.5 goals scored in four of their last five European games on home soil.
Similarly to Riga, Celtic started the campaign in the Champions League, suffering a 2-1 defeat against Ferencvaros in the second qualifying round.
The Scottish giants made it to the last-32 of this competition last season, suffering a defeat against surprise-package Copenhagen. The visitors have now failed to win in their last three matches in the Europa League. Their recent matches in the competition have been relatively high-scoring, with over 2.5 goals scored in four of their previous six games.
Celtic have struggled away from home in the Europa League, winning just three of their previous 21 matches in this clash. One of the biggest problems the visitors have had on the road is keeping clean sheets. In fact, the Hoops have kept just two clean sheets in their previous 21 away games in the Europa League.
Forebet predicts that the visitors will record a narrow victory and keep an elusive clean sheet in Europe’s secondary competition.