The first leg between these two sides ended in fairly routine 1-0 victory for the Austrian hosts, and it would now appear as though Albanian side Kukesi have it all to do having failed to register a goal on their trip to Vienna.
In terms of both prestige and European pedigree it’s fair to say that Austria Vienna are bigger than their opponents and, although it wasn’t a devastating victory, I think this showed in the first leg. With this in mind it’s no surprise to see that Vienna are odds-on to make it victories both home and away in this tie.
Realistically it’s hard to go against the Austrians here, they looked a better side than Kukesi in the first leg and they should be capable of increasing their aggregate lead in this second leg. At 1-0 down Kukesi have two options: they either press the Austrian side from the start and try to force their way back into the tie – which would inevitably allow Vienna chances on the counter-attack – or they sit back, remain compact and try to steal something in order to restore parity. But you’d have to feel that in doing this they’d simply allow the visitors to come onto them and with Vienna’s superior quality you’d expect Kukesi to come under some serious pressure if employing this tactic. Either way it seems as though the hosts find themselves in a pretty rough situation here.
Although they do look a good bet to win this game, it is worth taking a slightly different angle and backing the visitors to score over 1.5 goals at the better price of even money. Having prevented their opponents from scoring an away goal, whichever way this game pans out, it’s hard to see Austria Vienna going without several chances and it would be no surprise at all if they were able to notch at least two goals.
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