This match sees Birkirkara of island nation Malta take on Krasnodar FC, arguably Russia’s most stable club outside of the big boys Zenit and CSKA Moscow.
Whilst many would expect the third place team from the Maltese Premier League to have not made it this far, they have put in some good performances to make it to the third qualifying round (most notably an excellent win over Scottish side Hearts) and are yet to concede at home in this Europa League qualification campaign. This is unsurprisingly the furthest they have ever gone in European competition and this match is one of the toughest they will have ever faced.
Krasnodar were only founded in 2008 but they have made excellent progress in that time. I said earlier that they are one of Russia’s most stable clubs, the reason for this being that they seem to have reliable finances, something nearly all of their other competitors struggle with. The fact that the club is well run also means that they can progress on the pitch. They were in with a shout of qualifying for Champions League football last season and only just missed out whilst in Fedor Smolov they had the Russian Premier League’s top goalscorer.
Oleg Kononov has managed to keep his squad together and I expect them to do well both domestically and on the continent this season. They could cause some surprises in Europe if anybody underestimates them.
As hinted in the previous paragraph, I back Krasnodar here but unsurprisingly there is no value in a straight win. Although the Bulls are likely to rest players with the Russian Premier League season starting only a matter of days after this Europa League tie, I still expect them to put Birkirkara to the sword. The Russian side will want an early goal to settle the nerves so I think they will come out of the traps quickly. Krasnodar to be leading after 30 minutes is well worth a go at 7/5.
A tip for an early part of the game like this means your nerves will be settled by 19:00 on Thursday night when this tip comes off!
See more tips from Thomas here.