FK Zalgiris vs Malmo Match Analysis and Prediction

2 years ago 385

FK Zalgiris and Malmo will go head to head in the first leg of their Champions League second-round qualifying tie at LFF Stadium in Latvia on Tuesday night.

Both sides did well in their respective first round of the Champions League qualifiers with Zalgiris seeing out Ballkani 2-1 on aggregate, while Malmo edged out Vikingur Reykjavik 6-5 on aggregate.

Zalgiris drew 1-1 with Ballkani in the first leg of the first round at away, with Nazmi Gripshi opening the scores for the Kosovars in the 15^th minute, before Oliver Buff equalized for Zalgiris 10 minutes later. In the second leg, Zalgiris managed to steal a place in the second round of the Champions League qualification round with Kehinde Mathias Oyewusi scoring the decisive goal in the seventh minute of extra time.

The Lithuanians are now targeting a first-ever group stage qualification in the Champions League and hope to fare better than their attempt time last year, where they got eliminated in the second qualifying round, before losing in the third round of the Europa League preliminaries and then to Bodo/Glimt in the playoffs for entry to the inaugural Europa Conference League.

Meanwhile, Malmo won 3-2 in the first leg of their first qualifying round against Vikingur Reykjavik at home, before they drew 3-3 in the second leg. Malmo played in the Group H of the Champions League last term, where they finished last behind Juventus, Chelsea and Zenit with just one point on board.

They will be determined to make it to the group stage of the competition again this term and head into the first leg of the second round in a good mood having won 2-0 at away against Norrkoping in their domestic league tie.

However they face Zalgiris who have been in good form winning five of their last six matches, including three home wins in a row. Therefore, we expect a close encounter over the two legs of this fixture.