Qarabag FK welcome Viktoria Plzen to the Tofiq Bahramov Stadium in Baku for the first leg of their Champions League qualifying tie on Wednesday.
With just 180 minutes separating both teams from a place in the group stages of Europe’s premier club competition, they will be looking to steal an early march on each other.
Qarabag saw off the threat of Hungarian side Ferencvaros in the previous round of the Champions League qualifier courtesy of a 4-2 aggregate victory.
Gurban Gurbanov played out a 1-1 stalemate in the first leg, before claiming a resounding 3-1 triumph at the Groupama Arena in Budapest last Tuesday.
The Horsemen defeated Sumqayit 2-0 in their most recent league outing on Saturday and have maintained their 100% to the new domestic campaign.
Their next task sees them face off against an opposing outfit who are yet to come out on top in any of the last four encounters between the teams.
Having won 11 and drawn three of their 14 home games since March, Wednesday’s hosts will head into the clash with real belief that they can come away with a crucial win here.
Viktoria Plzen picked up a fourth victory in a row across all competition as they eased past the challenge of Hradec Kralove on Saturday.
Goals from Tomas Chory and Vaclav Pilar either side of Filip Kubala’s leveller got the job done for Michal Bilek’s men at the Lokotrans Arena.
Prior to that, the Czech champions defeated Sheriff Tiraspol 2-1 at the Doosan Arena to complete a 4-2 triumph on aggregate in the third round of the Champions League qualifiers.
Still yet to lose away from home since the turn of the year, Wednesday’s visitors now set out to secure a positive result on the road which would put them in pole position ahead of next week’s return fixture.
Qarabag FK Champions League form:
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Qarabag FK form (all competitions):
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Viktoria Plzen Champions League form:
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Viktoria Plzen form (all competitions):
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We say: Qarabag FK 2-1 Viktoria Plzen
Playing in front of their fans, the onus is more on Qarabag to take the fight to their visitors and get the job done. We are backing the home side to live up to expectations and secure a narrow win here.