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Aron Wright - July 17, 2018
FC Zaria vs Gornik Zabrze
Europa League First qualifying round
Date: Thursday, 19 July 2018
Kick-Off at 18:00 UK/ 19:00 CET
Venue: Stadionul Zimbru (Chisinau).
Gornik Zabrze are back to Europe for the first time since 1988 and the Poles had a tough outing at home against FC Zaria last week, yet escaped with a 1-0 win, courtesy of a late goal from veteran Spanish forward Igor Angulo.
They would have wanted to win it by a wider margin, considering Zari are going through a tough period these days. The home side for Thursday’s encounter sit at the very foot of the standings in the new season of Moldova Divizia Nationala after winning just 9 points in 12 matches so far in the competition.
Zaria headed into this tie on the back of demolishing league losses to Zimbru and Sheriff, matches which saw them concede as many as nine goals in total.
The Polish league is yet to start, thus Gornik’s actions in friend up until then are limited to club friendlies. They didn’t have the best of the outings as they lost of those 6 warm up games.
The 1-0 home win last week is Gornik Zabrze’s lone competitive meeting with FC Zaria.
Zaria are the site in better physical condition and this was evident in the first leg and we can say that they did well to avoid a damaging defeat.
The hosts have plenty of experience playing at this level as opposed to their Polish guests. Zaria played well in the previous term of Europa League and stole headlines when they stunned Bosnian outfit Sarajevo in the first round.
It is true that their current form is nowhere in comparison to what they used to be last term, but they have the potential to bounce back with a win against an inexperienced side lacking match practice.
Moreover, Gornik’s form in the pre-season do not look convincing, therefore a narrow home win adds good value to our mid-week picks.
Safe option is Zaria or Draw at 2.80 odd.
Brave punters must think of backing Zaria to win for 6.00 odd on small stakes.
