HJK take on the visitors Plzen in the first leg of quarterfinals of UEFA Champions League qualification. The match will be played on Wednesday, July 20th at Bolt Arena (Helsinki).
HJK remain to be the most successful club in its country. The Klubi have won the gold medal 31 times and this is by far the best result in Finnish football. True, so far the chances of improving this indicator are not particularly high. They won the title in 2020, was able to get ahead of KuPS by 1 point in the last draw, but now it is just lagging behind the competitor, and quite noticeably. A certain compensation was the start in the Champions League (by the way, in 1998 they managed to get into the main round - a wonderful, unique result for the Finns). This time, Tony Koskela's wards faced problems already in the 1st round of qualification. They minimally beat RFS at home, but in Riga they were 2 goals behind until the 75th minute. But Murilo moved the meeting into overtime, and the representative of Finland were luckier in the penalty shootout.
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Victoria Plzen were able to regain the championship title. The Red-Blues have dominated the past decade, managing to take 5 league titles in 2010-2018. But then Slavia Prague became the No. 1 force in Czech football. Moreover, the club from Plzen in the draw before last fell back to 5th place. But in May 2021, Michal Bilek returned to the post of head coach. And he was able to eventually get around the "patchwork". Now the team wants to show similar progress in the international arena. In general, Victoria is an experienced fighter, who once again played in the group stage of the Champions League in 2018. But last summer the Czechs failed to qualify for the Conference League! They were able to pass Dinamo Brest and the New Saints (only after extra time after 2-4 on the road). But then there was CSKA Sofia, and, having beaten it 0-2 at home, the Red-Blues also lost in Bulgaria, conceding in stoppage time.
Before this confrontation, the champions of Finland and the Czech Republic had never crossed paths with each other. Experts consider Victoria to be the couple's favorite even in Helsinki. But HJK is on the move, and should at least not lose to the Czechs.
Prediction for the match: HJK to win with +0.5 handicap (1X).
