Uphill Struggle for Krasnodar
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Many of the 2019/20 Champions League playoffs are delicately poised but there is one tie which looks like it could already be over.
FK Krasnodar welcome Olympiakos to the Stadion FK Krasnodar on Tuesday 27th August with the winner progressing to the group stages. However, Krasnodar need a miracle if they are to come back from the 4-0 defeat they suffered in Greece.
The current leaders of the Russian Premier League held out until the 30th minute and the score remained 1-0 until the 78th minute when Olympiakos extended their lead. This is when things started to go wrong for Krasnodar and they conceded 2 more goals with just 5 minutes remaining on the clock.
Krasnodar had been enjoying a good start to the season up until that loss, which was their third defeat of the campaign in all competitions. They were on a run of three straight wins prior to the first leg of this tie, winning two games in the Russian Premier League and winning 3-2 in Porto in the Champions League.
The win over Porto was excellent and would have given Krasnodar some belief for the match in Olympiakos but it wasn’t to be. They have played just one home match in the Champions League in their history and lost 1-0 to Porto, so Krasnodar will need to improve drastically if they are to qualify for the group stages this season.
Olympiakos are enjoying themselves at the start of the 2019/20 season and have played six games, winning five and drawing one. Five of those matches have come in the Champions League and Olympiakos started with a 0-0 draw at Viktoria Plzen in the second qualifying round. They completed the job at home, winning 4-0.
The third round draw paired them with Istanbul Basaksehir and this had the makings of a difficult tie. However, Olympiakos won the first leg 1-0 away from home and went on to complete the job by winning 2-0 in-front of their own fans.
Following the first leg against Krasnodar, Olympiakos started the Greek Super League with a 1-0 win over Asteras Tripolis at home.
Trends show Olympiakos are undefeated in their two away Champions League qualifying games this season, winning one and drawing one. They did lose all three of their away matches last time they were in the group stage in 2017.
Team news and Krasnodar are without midfielder Viktor Claesson who is out until January and that’s a big blow. The hosts also have doubts over the fitness of Remy Cabella and Yuri Gazinskiy.
Olympiakos have no injury or suspension concerns ahead of this game and could go with the same starting XI from the first leg.
Krasnodar have no choice but to attack and that means we should see goals in this game. The hosts will be pushing forward and could come out on top but Olympiakos will have chances to score. A home win both teams scoring is a likely outcome.
Home team
Away team
Pred
Correct score
Avg. goals
Weather conditions
Coef.
Score
Live
coef.
UCL
413128
1
2 - 1
2.64
22°
2.13
2.13
3.65
3.36
1
-1
-1
1 - 2(1 - 1)
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