Aron Wright - July 9, 2018
FC Astana v Sutjeska
Champions League 1st Round Qualifying
Date: Wednesday 11th July 2018
Kick off at 15:00 UK/ 16:00 CET
Venue: Astana Arena (Astana).
FC Astana will be the big odds on favourites to beat Sutjeska in this first leg of Champions League qualifying to take place in Kazakhstan. Astana are clearly the better team and they will want to take this advantage and win the first match and take a healthy lead to Sutjeska.
In the Kazakhstan Premier League Astana are in 1st position on 47 points and are six points clear. From 19 games they have lost just two and current form is good with 4 wins and a draw. They enter this game in very high spirits. At home they are unbeaten this season winning 8 of their 9 matches and drawing the other.
Sutjeska play in Montenegro and that league hasn’t started yet and that is another reason that Astana has been installed as favourites. But also Sutjeska do not have as much Champions League experience as them and that should be able to tell the teams apart when they meet on Wednesday afternoon.
There has been no previous competitive matches between the two sides before.
FC Astana will start this game very quick and look to get a goal or two before half time. They will be on the front foot, not only do they have the better team but they are at home and they need to get a good result.
Sutjeska will set up to defend and try and break on the counter attack. They will be hoping to get an away goal and keep the score low. It’s difficult to back against Astana and we can’t see this happening.
Our main is for them to be winning at half time which offers decent odds compared to a full time win which is around 1.40.
Half time: FC Astana to be winning at half time at 1.83
Correct score: FC Astana to win 2-0 or 3-0 at 5.00 and 7.50.