Royal Antwerp failed to finish off FC Drita in the opening leg of the second qualifying round action in the UEFA Conference League and now faces a potentially tricky road outing in Kosovo.
There wasn’t any scoring in the first leg and Thursday’s match in Pristina could be another cagey affair as the stakes will be high for both sides and neither will want to take unnecessary risks. Bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 2.00 for under 2.5 goals in the game and at 3.75 for under 1.5 goals.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: July 27th, 8:30 A.M. (EST)
Crashing out of Europe so early into the season would be a huge blow for Antwerp as the club has made major investments into the squad in recent years and will want to see it translate into success on the pitch.
Antwerp made probably the biggest signing in club history only a couple of weeks ago when Toby Alderweireld agreed to a three-year deal with his hometown club.
The former Atletico Madrid and Tottenham man brings a wealth of experience with him and adds a lot of quality as he’s still a Belgian international at the age of 33.
In attack, Antwerp have scooped up another former Spurs man in Vincent Janssen. The 28-year-old forward failed to make a breakthrough in English football, but he went on to have a fairly decent career in Mexico for Monterrey and was even back in the Netherlands squad this June.
With the help of Alderweireld and Janssen, Antwerp made a winning start to the new league campaign over the weekend with a 2-0 away victory against Mechelen.
Drita won’t kick off their league season until Aug. 13, but the team has already seen a decent amount of competitive action after starting the Conference League run in the first qualifying round. The three-time Kosovan champions beat Finnish side Inter Turku 3-1 on aggregate.
The side from Gjilan, the eighth largest city in Kosovo, hasn’t seen much success in Europe, but they gave Dutch giants and eventual Conference League finalists Feyenoord quite a scare in the second qualifying round a year ago, and Antwerp have to produce a professional performance to avoid a shock elimination.
There’s a clear gap in quality between the teams, but the Kosovans will have the home crowd behind them and Antwerp showed last season that they aren’t a great traveling side. The team ended up going win-less in all four away European outings. Another negative result on Thursday would be a real gut punch.
