Boasting a 3-0 lead from the first leg of their Europa League playoff tie, Rapid Vienna travel to Zorya Luhansk for Thursday's second-leg encounter.
The Austrian outfit are looking to finish the job in Ukraine and reach the group stage of this competition for the second successive season.
Match preview
© Reuters
Rapid Vienna have put themselves into a very strong position to qualify for the Europa League group stage, as they take a three-goal cushion into the second leg.
A 29th minute goal from Taxiarchis Fountas broke the deadlock for the Austrian side, before second-half strikes from Ercan Kara and Marco Grull sealed an impressive win over Zorya Luhansk.
Considering Vienna had failed to win four of their previous six matches, Dietmar Kuhbauer will be delighted with his side's comfortable first-leg victory and will hope they have done enough to be in Friday's Europa League group stage draw.
Rapid Vienna followed up their 3-0 win on Thursday with another victory by the same scoreline against Ried in the Austrian Bundesliga last weekend.
Even though a 2-0 defeat would be enough to send Vienna through to the group stages, Kuhbauer will be keen to ensure that his players stay on top of their game and build a strong run of form across all competitions.
© Reuters
Zorya Luhansk's disappointing start to the 2021-22 campaign has continued, with last Thursday's loss away at Rapid Vienna their third defeat from their opening five matches across all competitions.
They did, however, bounce back to claim all three points in the Ukrainian Premier League with an entertaining 4-3 victory away at Mariupol on Sunday.
A brace from Shahab Zahedi as well as goals from Yehor Nazaryna and Oleksnadr Hladkyy ensured the Muzhyky came away with their second league victory of the season, which has moved them up to seventh in the table.
Viktor Skrypnyk's men will be hoping that last weekend's result can be the catalyst for a positive spell of form, though they are set to face another difficult task on Thursday, with a huge mountain to climb if they are to reach the Europa League group stage.
Confirmation of their defeat on aggregate in midweek would see them demoted to the inaugural Europa Conference League.
- L
- L
- W
- L
- D
- L
- W
- W
- W
- W
- L
- L
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Zorya boss Skrypnyk began with a 4-4-1-1 formation for the first leg, but may switch to a flat 4-4-2 system for Thursday's match to get two centre-forwards into his starting lineup.
Vladyslav Kabayev started in the number 10 role behind lone forward Allahyar Sayyadmanesh for the first leg, however they could both be dropped and replaced by strikers Zahedi and Raymond Owusu – who have scored four goals between them so far this season.
As for Rapid Vienna, they are unlikely to make too many changes, if any, to the side that started the first leg.
Fountas, Kara and Grull, who all scored in the first leg, have now found the net 16 times combined in 11 games across all competitions so far this campaign, and all three are set to start on Thursday.
Goalkeeper Richard Strebinger, who has kept four clean sheets in his last six matches, was substituted in the 63rd minute of their last league game with a shoulder injury, so Paul Gartner is expected to start in midweek.
Zorya Luhansk possible starting lineup:
Shevchenko; Favorov, Vernydub, Imerekov, Juninho; Kochergin, Nazaryna, Buletsa, Hromov; Zahedi, Owusu
Rapid Vienna possible starting lineup:
Gartner; Stojkovic, Hofmann, Greiml, Ullmann; Arase, Ljubicic, Granhovac, Grull; Fountas, Kara
We say: Zorya Luhansk 1-2 Rapid Vienna (Rapid Vienna win 5-1 on aggregate)
Zorya Luhansk have it all to do on Thursday and an attacking display in front of their home supporters is required if they are to overturn a three-goal deficit.
The visitors, however, will likely pose a threat again in midweek and we can see them securing a narrow victory, cruising into the Europa League group stage.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Zorya Luhansk win with a probability of 38.49%. A win for Rapid Vienna had a probability of 38.32% and a draw had a probability of 23.2%.
The most likely scoreline for a Zorya Luhansk win was 2-1 with a probability of 8.33%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (6.28%) and 2-0 (5.12%). The likeliest Rapid Vienna win was 1-2 (8.3%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.21%). The actual scoreline of 2-3 was predicted with a 3.7% likelihood.
