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Joey - July 17, 2018
Zalgiris vs Ki Klaksvik
Europa League First qualifying round
Date: Thursday, 19 July 2018
Kick-Off at 18:00 UK/ 19:00 CET
Venue: LFF stadionas (Vilnius).
Zalgiris were a regular in Champions League qualifiers over the past five years, but this time they have to satisfy with Europa League football after surrendering the Lithuanian league to Suduva after four consecutive titles.
The drew the first blood in the double header against Faroe Islands based outfit Klaksvik last week, but it wasn’t easy as they would have liked and needed an injury time goal to earn a 2-1 lead to take to the home turf for the second leg.
Now, both teams are in the midst of the new season campaigns in respective domestic leagues. Therefore, fitness won’t be a problem here.
Zalgiris had another dismal journey as they are as many as eight points shy of runaway leaders and defending champions Suduva.
Meantime, KI also sit second with a five-point deficit to HB at the very top of the Meistaradeildin standings.
The poor kick off to the new campaign forced a managerial change in Zalgiris who’ve just recently appointed Valdas Urbonas as the new head coach.
Urbonas seems to have found a winning formula as the team bagged three consecutive clean sheet wins before conceding 1 against Ki last Wednesday.
The first leg clash that ended in a 2-1 win for Zalgiris is their lone meeting with Ki Klaksvik
KI showed that they are no pushovers in the first leg as they were high on confidence following a run of six wins and a draw in last seven league games.
However, Zalgiris proved that they are a stringer opposition and they dominated the game and eventually found the break through with seconds left for the final whistle,
Zalgiris have a strong attacking line-up led by internationals Toma Malec, Serge Nyuiadzi and Louis Ogana. Slovenian striker Malec notched 7 goals in 18 games so far in the season and he will be the main threat to KI’s goal on the day.
To sum it, we feel KI will to create in the final third as Zalgiris’ defensive line under Valdas Urbonas has been the toughest to crack in recent week.
Therefore, we will go with another Zalgiris win, most likely with a clean sheet.
