Luzern hosts Espanyol in the first leg of the Europa League qualification semifinals. The match will be played on Thursday, August 8th at Swissporarena (Luzern)
Luzern is a fairly average team by the standards of the Swiss Super League: it does not fight for the championship but rarely participates in the struggle for survival. In this season, it’s about the same thing: three rounds are played, and Luzern lost, won and tied. At the same time, the goal difference is only 2-1, which means that Luzern does not like to take risks, and it should be manifested especially in matches against Espanyol. Although Luzern often participates in European competitions, this team never went beyond the third qualifying round of the Europa League: there were defeats to formidable Sassuolo, Olympiacos and Genk. They are formidable for Luzern, though.
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Espanyol is developing quite interestingly: the club entered the Asian market last season, largely thanks to the invitation of the Chinese striker Wu Lei to the team. Besides, the White and Blues’ squad includes several more cool players; probably, a defensive midfielder Marc Roca is the most promising of them. He made his debut in the main squad of Espanyol under Kiko Sanchez Flores’s management, but the 4-4-2 system does not suit him very much - the system with the 4-3-3 scheme, which appeared under Juan Rubi, was much more suitable for him. Even now, as they say, Bayern Munich is ready to pay a lot of money for the transfer of this football player. Last season of Espanyol turned out to be quite good: the team played bright football, even if the result was not the most stable. As a result, the White and Blues managed to jump to seventh place and get into the qualifying round of the Europa League. Now Juan Rubi is the head coach of Betis - he will build a very cool team in Seville, which will be capable of playing football no less spectacular than under Kike Setien. Espanyol has to build a team again, and it will happen under the leadership of a new coach.
As for the upcoming match, the factor of Espanyol is paramount - I think that the White and Blues want to get into the group stage of the Europa League, although they may lack strength during the season (remember the heavy schedule). But Lucerne is not the rival that Espanyol needs to be afraid of – the Spaniards are simply better than their opponent in terms of skills. Yes, the visit to Switzerland, given some features of this country, is always a difficult test, but Espanyol must deal with it, so my prediction is the victory of Espanyol.
Prediction for the match: Espanyol to win
