Europa League Quali, 2nd round, first leg, Thursday, 25.07.2024 at 18:30
“The best of the rest” wants to qualify for the European Cup! Trabzonspor have big goals in the Europa League, and their journey to the qualifiers starts with a big unknown.
The match will be played in Slovakia and the opponents have never made an international appearance. In my Ruzomberok Trabzonspor betting tip, however, I will tell you why I would bet on goals from both teams here
35 points behind the leaders and yet somehow a commanding third? No, the 2023/24 season in the Süper Lig was anything but normal. Trabzonspor was one of the many teams that couldn’t do anything in the title fight.
Galatasaray and Fenerbahce stormed unstoppably ahead, leaving Trabzonspor in third place in the end. The result: qualification for the Europa League, which begins for the Turkish top club in the 2nd round.
So how do you analyze a team that will be back on the pitch on Thursday after a long break? The match against Ruzomberok will be the first of the new season, so it’s difficult to make a prediction.
An interesting look naturally leads us to the transfer list. Not much money has really been spent, with only Cihan Canak, Ozan Tufan and Denis Dragus costing a total of just 5.7 million euros
Some players have returned after their loan deals expired, so it could well be that there will be some personnel changes. In any case, coach Abdullah Avci will still be in charge in 2024/25.
It has been two years since Trabzonspor last took part in the Europa League group stage, but failed to make it past AS Monaco, Red Star Belgrade and Ferencvaros Budapest
Of course, Trabzonspor have already made a number of appearances in the qualifying stages of the competition in question. Most of the time, if they didn’t make it to the preliminary round, they were knocked out in the play-offs.
In fact, the club from Trabzon has never really been knocked out in the current 2nd round. But beware: In 2015/16, they also thought nothing could happen in round 3, but Rabnothicki Skopje suddenly proved to be too strong
Our bookmakers can’t imagine that Trabzonspor will let much happen this Thursday. 1.60 to 4.90, the win odds for the first leg look relatively likely.
Incidentally, Trabzonspor and Ruzomberok have never played against each other, but the Turks have already faced Slovan Bratislava, probably the best-known Slovakian representative, twice in their international history.
With one win and one defeat, their record is balanced. Of course, Slovan Bratislava have a lot more experience than MFK Ruzomberok. The city in Slovakia has a population of less than 30,000 and the stadium cannot hold 5,000 fans
2022/23, the team caught our eye once in the 2nd qualifying round of the Conference League, but promptly suffered two defeats against FC Riga (0:3 and 1:2). So it’s clear that hardly anyone is expecting any notable results this season either.
Ruzomberok had to start in the first round of qualifying, where they faced Tobol Kostanay. Home advantage was more than helpful in the first leg and immediately set the course for progression.
The new season starts in Slovakia next weekend, but Ruzomberok had to be fit earlier. And the players were, too, as they got off to a flying start with a brilliant 5:2 win against Kostanay
It was hard to believe that the team had even fallen behind 1:0 and the score was 2:2 at one point, but in the end the quality of the Slovakians prevailed. The foundations had therefore already been laid and they could afford to lose 1-0 away from home shortly afterwards.
Incidentally, Ruzomberok are only allowed to compete in the Europa League qualifiers because they were able to celebrate their surprising cup win a few months ago – which is exactly what Trabzonspor failed to do against Besiktas!
Trabzonspor are fully challenged on Thursday, the 2nd round of the Europa League qualification should not be a hurdle for the Turks. Hand on heart: MFK Ruzomberok, that doesn’t exactly sound like a big number to us all!
The Slovakians slipped into the competition as cup winners and looked very good at home against Tobol Kostanay. Trabzonspor can’t be in rhythm yet, so caution is advised.
Due to the home advantage, I can imagine that the underdog will be able to keep up better than expected. That’s why I’ve also decided to bet on the following tip:
Both teams will score!
