APOEL hosts Qarabag in the first leg of the Champions League qualification semifinals. The match will be played on Tuesday, August 6th at GSP Stadium (Nicosia)
After APOEL could not even get to the UEFA Europa League group in the last season, losing this right to Kazakhstan's Astana in the decisive round, the management of the Nicosians made drastic changes in the squad. As a result, a couple of veterans remained in the first eleven of the Yellow-blues, who mixed with a whole coalition of newcomers very successfully. It managed not only to take gold medals in Cyprus once again but also to get into the semifinal phase of the current UEFA Champions League qualification. APOEL easily beat Montenegrin Sutjeska (3:0 at home and 1:0 away). In my opinion, it is unlikely that experienced and ambitious APOEL will stop at such a local achievement... In any case, the team is deservedly considered a favorite in the upcoming match against Qarabag. In the native GSP arena, the Cypriots are sometimes simply unstoppable, supported by an army of noisy fans. In recent years, we saw the losses of Norwegian Rosenborg (0:3), Welsh TNS (0:3), French Bordeaux (1:2), Astana (0:1), Israeli Hapoel Ber Sheva (1:3), etc.!
| 2 x £10 Free Bet | Review | |||
| 100$-500$ for No Lose Free Bets | Review | |||
| 100% up to £200 | Review | |||
| Not available | Review |
As for Qarabag, it was a bit difficult to cope with rivals that were much inferior to APOEL in the previous rounds of qualification. Qarabag played with Partizani (0:0 away, 2:0 at home) and Dundalk (1:1 away, 3:0 at home). At the same time, the Azerbaijani champion had problems in foreign fields, where it could well lose to the Albanians and the Irish.
I am waiting for a very likely victory of APOEL, and at the same time, I doubt very much that as many as five goals will be scored since these opponents are too fond of various defensive and tactical manipulations!
Prediction for the match: APOEL to win and Under 4.5 goals scored
