SUDUVA v APOEL
Wednesday 11th July 2018 – Kickoff: 1700hrs
Football – Europe – Champions League Betting Tips
Lithuanian A Lyga league leaders, Suduva, will play host to Cypriot outfit, APOEL, at their Marijampol?s sporto centro stadione as they look to take advantage of home turf in this first qualifying round first leg.
Suduva are currently sitting pretty at the top of A Lyga with an eight point margin ahead of second placed Zalgiris, but they come into this first qualifying round having lost two of their last three league matches with defeats to Zalgiris (1-0 at home) and a 1-0 loss away at Kauno Zalgiris.
This will be Suduva’s first ever appearance in the Champions League, and their lack of experience at this level may well become evident as they take on the Cypriot champions, APOEL, over this two-legged affair, and with recent results seeing a dip in form, the hosts could be up against it here.
Onto APOEL, and as mentioned, APOEL took the domestic First Division league title thanks to a last day 3-2 win away at Olympiakos, and even though Apollon Limassol also won their final match, APOEL sneaked home by a two point margin.
APOEL come into this first leg clash having won five of their last six matches overall, while back-to-back pre-season wins over Lechia Gdansk 2-1 and Doxa 3-1 (both away from home) will give them a good platform from which to launch from in this first leg.
The visitors reached the group stages of last season’s Champions League but it wasn’t a successful campaign as they finished bottom of a very tough Group H which also contained the likes of Tottenham, Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund, and gained just two points during the group stage with home and away draws against Borussia Dortmund.
Nevertheless, APOEL possess a far superior pedigree on the European stage and I’m expecting them to take a first leg lead here.
Pick; APOEL to win @ 1.72 bwin
