HJK and Viktoria Plzen braced for tight first leg in UCL qualifying
HJK Helsinki vs Viktoria Plzen - 20/07/2022
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On Wednesday, Finnish champions HJK Helsinki welcome Czech champions Viktoria Plzen to the Bolt Arena for the first leg of their UEFA Champions League qualifier.
Having finished atop the Czech First League last season, Viktoria Plzen head directly into the second qualifying round.
On the flip side, HJK were forced to come through a tricky first-round clash against Latvian outfit RFS in order to book their place in the second round.
HJK won the first leg 1-0, but RFS won the second leg 2-1. The tie was ultimately decided on penalties, with HJK winning 5-4 to punch their ticket to the next phase.
Last time out, HJK claimed a 3-1 victory over VPS. As a result, they find themselves second in the Finnish Veikkausliiga – having lost just three of their 15 games this term.
It is worth noting that over 1.5 goals have been scored in three of HJK’s previous four encounters across all competitions.
That said, nine of HJK’s 15 Veikkausliiga games this season have produced under 2.5 goals – including four of their previous five.
As for Viktoria Plzen, their domestic campaign doesn’t kick off until July 30. However, they have played a series of friendlies in recent weeks.
The Czech champions have played seven friendlies since the end of the previous campaign, registering four wins, two draws and one loss.
Last season, Viktoria Plzen lost just two of their 35 league games to finish seven points clear at the top of the Czech First League.
They also ended the campaign with the best defensive record in the division, conceding only 21 goals in 35 games (0.6 goals per game).
Head-to-head: HJK and Viktoria Plzen have never previous faced each other, meaning we have no past results to assess for this fixture.
Team news: HJK are currently without four players due to injury – Roope Riski, Valtteri Moren, Miska Ylitolva and Manuel Martic.
Viktoria Plzen have two injury absentees at the moment, with Filip Kasa and Petr Pejsa sidelined for the foreseeable future.
Given that HJK and Viktoria Plzen are relatively evenly matched, Wednesday’s clash looks set to be a close-fought battle.
With that in mind, Forebet predicts that HJK and Viktoria Plzen will play out a low-scoring draw in the first leg – setting up a winner-takes-all second leg.
Home team
Away team
Pred
Correct score
Avg. goals
Weather conditions
Coef.
Score
Live
coef.
UCL
254233
X
1 - 1
2.27
23°
3.40
3.80
3.40
1.83
no
no
no
1 - 2(0 - 1)
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