Football – Champions League Qualification – 1st Leg
Tuesday 15th July 2014 – Kickoff: 2000hrs
Rabotnicki (Macedonian League) play host to HJK Helsinki (Finland Veikkausliiga) at the Philip II Arena on Tuesday night as they fight it out to determine who goes through to the third qualifying round.
Rabotnicki achieved the double in Macedonia’s domestic competitions, winning the First League and also the Cup, but the opposition is rather weak it has to be said, but they have nonetheless dominated the domestic scene for some time now.
Their season ended a few weeks ago and have since played just a couple of friendlies where they haven’t been convincing, and they’ve also lost a few of their key players from last season; players like forwards Ilioski (8 goals) and Manevski (15 goals) have since left for Thailand, while midfielders Todorovski (6 goals) has left for Japan, along with the departure of Petrov (3 goals).
Visitors HJK Helsinki are right in the middle of their Finland Veikkausliiga season where they are currently enjoying top position of the domestic division by a margin of nine points already. The Finnish Champions have lost just once on the road so far this season, and once again dominate the Finland Veikkausliiga.
Helsinki are also on an impressive run of 14 matches unbeaten in the Veikkausliiga which includes ten straight wins, while their away record in the league stands at 5-3-1 13/6. In addition, they possess some dangerous firepower up front with players such as Mikael Forssell (4 goals), Alho (5 goals) along with Kandji and Savage (6 goals apiece), and as you can see, they’re all in goalscoring mode right now.
The end of season break ahead of tonight’s encounter may not do Rabotnicki any favours here while the visitors Helsinki are in full swing and have been in impressive form of late along with the important momentum and confidence that goes along with it. I’ll back the visitors to take a lead into their second leg fixture here.
Pick: HJK Helsinki straight win @ 2.30 Stan James
