Malmo to hammer Ballymena once again
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One of the more eye-catching results of the Europa League first qualifying round ties was Malmo’s 7-0 hammering of Ballymena in Sweden. The pair meet again on Thursday night at the Showgrounds for the second leg, with Forebet predicting another big win for the Swedish side.
The fact that Malmo recorded such a resounding first-leg win may not have come as such a surprise considering the two teams contrasting levels of experience in the Europa League. The scoreline was slightly surprising, though.
The Swedish team were favourites to progress to the next round, mainly due to their perceived superior quality. Their experience of making the knockout stages of last seasons competition obviously served them well too. Only last seasons eventual winners Chelsea have beaten the Swedish side in their last eight games in the Europa League.
In contrast to Malmo’s recent impressive run in the Europa League, Ballymena have a poor record in the competition, having won just one of their five games, suffering three defeats in the process over a two-year period.
The team from Northern Ireland will look to at least restore some pride after that first leg hammering. They have enjoyed mixed results on home soil in the competition, having played just two home games, winning one and losing one of their matches.
However, their only home win in the Europa League early stages was against a side from the Faroe Islands in NSI. Malmo are a step up in class from NSI and Ballymena could be in for another difficult night.
The visitor’s top scorer, the experienced Markus Rosenberg will be looking to add to his goal tally in this clash after scoring a hat-trick in the first leg. The former Ajax star has also scored seven times in Allsvenskan this season.
At first glance, this tie did not look like that much of a miss-match. However, Malmo quite simply has more quality than their hosts, who need to look at this tie as a learning curve.
Home team
Away team
Pred
Correct score
Avg. goals
Weather conditions
Coef.
Score
Live
coef.
UEL
41086
2
0 - 4
3.72
12°
1.11
14.35
8.37
1.11
-1
-1
1
0 - 4(0 - 1)
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