FC Midtjylland are off to a poor start to the season and enter a pivotal Champions League qualifier against AEK Larnaca still win-less for the campaign. Can they finally end the bad spell on Tuesday?
The teams played out a 1-1 draw in Denmark last week and bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 2.00 for both teams to score again. Midtjylland are the favorites in the contest with the odds for an away win at 1.95. The odds are at 4.20 for AEK to triumph.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: July 25th, 7:00 P.M. (EST)
Midtjylland are the stronger team of the two and they completely dominated the first clash, but football works in funny ways at times and the side from Denmark ended up needing a late equalizing goal to avoid a shock loss.
The shots were 24-5 to Midtjylland last Tuesday and Larnaca ended up scoring with their lone effort on target. The corner stats were incredibly one-sided as well and ended up 16-0 in Midtjylland’s favor.
Larnaca will feel a lot more comfortable at home and it should lead to a better performance. Midtjylland’s poor run of form at the start of the season should also be encouraging for the club from Cyprus.
In addition to the result against AEK last week, Midtjylland also ended up drawing their first league match of the season against Randers and they took a loss in their second league outing of the season last Friday going 3-1 down at home to Silkeborg.
Larnaca played their first competitive game of the season against Midtjylland and that might have been the reason why the team struggled to perform at MCH Arena. Manager Jose Luis Oltra will want to see a lot more from his side this time around.
Oltra, who coached in Spain for over 20 years before moving abroad for the first time in his career this season, has a very interesting selection of players available to him. The Cypriot clubs always tend to rely heavily on foreign players and AEK isn’t any different. Macedonian veteran Ivan Trichkovski is the biggest star of the team.
Trichkovski turned 35 back in April, but he continues to perform at a very high level and he produced a league-high 15 goals in the Cypriot top-flight last season. He’s the captain of the team and certainly leads by example on the pitch.
The veteran forward has also shown his class in Europe notching 20 goals in 34 outings for Larnaca. Knowing this, Midtjylland will definitely need to keep him in check on Tuesday to avoid elimination from the competition.
