Europa League :Metalist Kharkiv -Trabzonspor
This match is being played in Lviv, 1,000 km from Kharkiv, their home match in the playoff round was held in Kiev, which is about half that distance away and very few Metalist supporters made the journey and it is hard to see tonight's fixture offering them much by way of home advantage and as a team, they look weaker than in recent seasons. Traditionally the third best club side behind Shakhtar and Dynamo, they made the big breakthrough in 2012-13 to finish runner up, but last season again slipped back to third, with Dnipro edging them out. Dnipro look to have made the progress from that second place finish that Metalist were hoping for and are putting pressure on Donetsk and with Dynamo looking stronger, things look tough for tonight's host. Their confidence will not have been helped by losing 5-2 at home to Dnipro on Saturday and the mood amongst the players will surely not have been good on the long road trip to Lviv.
Trabzonspor have made a good start to life under new coach Vahid Halilhodzic (pictured), who proved his tactical worth with Algeria at the World Cup and his usual approach of keeping things tight and then counter attacking with speed and tactical nous, is ideally suited to playing on the road, especially in Europe. His team has yet to concede a goal and they will be very tough to breakdown this evening. I watched their 0-0 draw at Rostov in the playoff round and Halilhodzic has done an incredible job very quickly, they only allowed the hosts a couple of long range efforts on goal and three times got 3 v 1 on the break and were only denied by some fine saves and poor finishing, overall a very impressive performance and this is a team we have to give close attention to in the coming months.
1.25 units Trabzonspor level ball 2.11 asian line/Sportmarket.
This match is being played in Lviv, 1,000 km from Kharkiv, their home match in the playoff round was held in Kiev, which is about half that distance away and very few Metalist supporters made the journey and it is hard to see tonight's fixture offering them much by way of home advantage and as a team, they look weaker than in recent seasons. Traditionally the third best club side behind Shakhtar and Dynamo, they made the big breakthrough in 2012-13 to finish runner up, but last season again slipped back to third, with Dnipro edging them out. Dnipro look to have made the progress from that second place finish that Metalist were hoping for and are putting pressure on Donetsk and with Dynamo looking stronger, things look tough for tonight's host. Their confidence will not have been helped by losing 5-2 at home to Dnipro on Saturday and the mood amongst the players will surely not have been good on the long road trip to Lviv.
Trabzonspor have made a good start to life under new coach Vahid Halilhodzic (pictured), who proved his tactical worth with Algeria at the World Cup and his usual approach of keeping things tight and then counter attacking with speed and tactical nous, is ideally suited to playing on the road, especially in Europe. His team has yet to concede a goal and they will be very tough to breakdown this evening. I watched their 0-0 draw at Rostov in the playoff round and Halilhodzic has done an incredible job very quickly, they only allowed the hosts a couple of long range efforts on goal and three times got 3 v 1 on the break and were only denied by some fine saves and poor finishing, overall a very impressive performance and this is a team we have to give close attention to in the coming months.
1.25 units Trabzonspor level ball 2.11 asian line/Sportmarket.
