Dynamo Kyiv and AEK Larnaca will be looking to put their first points of this season’s Europa League on the board when they go head to head on Thursday.
While the hosts suffered a 2-1 defeat to Fenerbahce on matchday one, their visitors were beaten 2-1 at home to Rennes last week.
Dynamo Kyiv will be playing their European home matches in Krakow due to the ongoing Russia military invasion of Ukraine.
Despite playing outside of Ukraine, the designated hosts will hope that they can secure a positive result after losing to Fenerbahce last week.
Mircea Lucescu’s side would have felt that they had done enough to earn a poit, with Viktor Tsygankov cancelling out Gustavo Henrique’s opener, but a 92nd-minute winner from Michy Batshuayi condemned them to a fifth successive defeat across all competitions.
However, after their poor run of form, Dynamo Kyiv received boost at the weekend, defeating Lviv 1-0 to earn their first league win of the season.
The Ukrainian side will now aim to end a run of three straight defeats in the Europa League as they bid to get their European campaign up and running.
Like their hosts, AEK Larnaca were also on the wrong side of a stoppage-time winner last week, which ended in a 2-1 home defeat to Rennes.
Larnaca were at least able to respond with a victory at the weekend as they saw off Nea Salamis 1-0 to claim their first league victory of the season at the third attempt.
Jose Luis Oltra will hope the narrow victory adds momentum to Larnaca’s European and domestic campaign ahead of matches against Dynamo Kyiv and Pafos.
They will draw confidence from the fact that they have already beaten Ukrainian opposition this season with a victory in both legs of the Europa League qualifying tie against Dnipro-1.
Dynamo Kyiv vs AEK Larnaca head to head
These two teams have not previously met on any occasion and this will be their first meeting in the Europa League group stages.
Dynamo Kyiv latest home form
Dynamo Kyiv have recently failed to keep a good run of form at home, having won just two of their five most recent matches. They managed to defeat Lviv 1-0 in their last home game in the league. In their last five matches, they have scored two goals and conceded five.
Dinamo Kiev 0-0 Fenerbahce 20/07/22
Dinamo Kiev 1-0 Sturm Graz 03/08/22
Dinamo Kiev 0-2 Benfica 17/08/22
Dinamo Kiev 0-3 Dnipro-1 28/08/22
Dinamo Kiev 1-0 Lviv 11/09/22
Dynamo Kyiv latest away form
Dynamo Kyiv have recently failed to keep a good run of form on the road, having won just one of their five most recent matches. They lost 2-1 to Fenerbahce in their last away game in the Europa League. In their last five matches, they have scored five goals and conceded 12.
Everton 3-0 Dinamo Kiev 29/07/22
Sturm Graz 1-2(E) Dinamo Kiev 09/08/22
Benfica 3-0 Dinamo Kiev 23/08/22
Zorya 3-2 Dinamo Kiev 03/09/22
Fenerbahce 2-1 Dinamo Kiev 08/09/22
AEK Larnaca latest home form
AEK Larnaca have recently been on a relatively good run of form at home, having lost just one of their five most recent matches. They defeated Nea Salamis 1-0 in their last home game in the league. In their last five matches, they have scored seven goals and conceded three.
AEK Larnaca 2-1 Partizan 04/08/22
AEK Larnaca 3-0 Dnipro-1 25/08/22
AEK Larnaca 0-0 Doxa 29/08/22
AEK Larnaca 1-2 Rennes 08/09/22
AEK Larnaca 1-0 Nea Salamis 11/09/22
AEK Larnaca latest away form
AEK Larnaca lost 3-2 to Omonia Nicosia in their last away game in the league. However, they have recently been on a good run of form on the road, having been unbeaten in their previous eight games. In their last five matches, they have scored nine goals and also conceded nine.
APOEL 2-2 AEK Larnaca 12/07/22
Midtjylland 1-1 AEK Larnaca 19/07/22
Partizan 2-2 AEK Larnaca 11/08/22
Dnipro-1 1-2 AEK Larnaca 18/08/22
Omonia Nicosia 3-2 AEK Larnaca 03/09/22
Dynamo Kyiv news
Vladyslav Supryaga, Mykola Shaparenko and Volodymyr Kostevych are all expected to miss out of this contest for Dynamo Kyiv due injury issues.
Volodymyr Shepelev and Kostyantyn Vivcharenko are set to retain their places in the starting lineup after coming into the side at the weekend in the win over Lviv.
AEK Larnaca news
AEK Larnaca are unable to call upon Bruno Gama and Andreas Paraskevas who are both sidelined through injury.
After being rested at the weekend, Nenad Tomovic is expected to return to partner Hrvoje Milicevic in central defence, with the duo of Angel Garcia and Ismael Casas set to operate as full-backs.
Prediction and Odds
Both teams head into Thursday’s encounter having narrowly lost on matchday one, an we believe they will be involved in a close-fought contest.
We think that a draw is the most likely outcome to expect from this contest, with either side looking to avoid beginning the group stage with consecutive defeats.
Odds: 1 2.20 X 2.05 2 2.30
Probable outcomes
Dinamo Kiev 0-0 AEK Larnaca
Dinamo Kiev 1-1 AEK Larnaca
Dinamo Kiev 2-2 AEK Larnaca
Dinamo Kiev 1-0 AEK Larnaca
Dinamo Kiev 2-1 AEK Larnaca
