Jablonec hosts Celtic in the first leg of the Europa League qualification semifinals. The match will be played on Thursday, August 5th at Stadion Strelnice (Jablonec nad Nisou)
Jablonec qualified for the UEL qualification as the team that took 3rd place in the last season of the Czech Championship. The club scored 69 points and was outranked only by Slavia and Sparta. The Green-Whites start their path from the 3rd qualifying round. Jablonec lost some experienced players in the offseason. Forward Ivan Schrantz, who scored 16 goals in the last championship, left for Slavia, and defender Jakob Podany announced his retirement. At the same time, Jablonec signed a full-fledged contract with defender Jaroslav Zeleny, who was loaned from Slavia last season, and invited midfielder David Houska, who had previously played for Sigma. In the new season of the Czech Championship, the Green-Whites are showing contradictory results so far. In the opening round, Jablonec beat Banik from Ostrava at home (1: 0), but on July 31, it conceded three unanswered goals from Mlada Boleslav away (3-0), having suffered the 1st defeat in the official matches after vacation.
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Celtic did not win the Scottish championship for the first time in ten years, losing the lead to their rivals from Glasgow Rangers. Due to the 2nd place, the Celts got into the 2nd qualifying round of the Champions League, where they could not cope with the Danish Midtjylland (1-1 and 1-2) and were relegated to the qualification of the less prestigious Europa League. A series of failures of Ange Postecoglou’s men continued in the opening round of the Scottish Championship. Celtic unexpectedly lost to Hearts away on July 31 (2-1). Having exchanged goals by the 54th minute, the opponents could not determine the winner until the last moments of regulation time, but John Suttar brought victory to the home team.
The teams will cross paths for the first time in history, and the more famous Celtic looks like the favorite of the pair. But the confrontation will begin in the Czech Republic, and this is a problem for the Celts, who have not won in four away matches in European competitions (one draw and three losses). The support of the fans will an important advantage for Jablonec. The Czech authorities have allowed the club to completely fill the stands of the arena, and this may help the home team. Taking into account the unstable results of the Scots at the start of the season (three games without victories) and the statistics of the Czechs in home matches (only one defeat in five games), it would be logical to bet that Jablonec will not lose to the British.
Prediction for the match: Jablonec to win with +0.5 handicap
