Royal Antwerp hopes to make history on Wednesday with the club on the brink of getting into the Champions League group stage for the first time. To seal the deal, the Belgian champion has to successfully defend a 1-0 lead away from home against AEK Athens.
Bookmaker William Hill has the odds at 1.67 for Antwerp to progress. The odds are at 2.10 for AEK to get back to the group stage for the first time since 2018-19.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: August 29th, 6:30 P.M. (EST)
Antwerp has earned itself a slight advantage thanks to Vincent Janssen, who finished off a lovely team move for the lone goal in the opening leg. The 16th-minute strike proved to be vitally important as Antwerp spent most of the second half with ten men following the sending off of full-back Jelle Bataille.
Playing with the man advantage, AEK ended up dominating the contest, but the 13-time Greek champion couldn’t get on the scoreboard despite registering a 2.17 mark in expected goals. Manager Matias Almeyda will definitely want to see much better finishing from his team on home turf.
AEK notched 69 goals in 36 league outings last season in the Greek Super League, so keeping them at bay last week was a huge achievement for Antwerp. Can the team repeat the feat in Athens? With veteran star Toby Alderweireld leading the troops at the back, you wouldn’t put it past Antwerp to produce another outstanding defensive display.
Antwerp’s efforts on Wednesday will be aided by Levi Garcia’s injury. AEK’s last season’s top scorer was forced off in the first half last week in Belgium and won’t be available for the Double-Headed Eagle in the second leg. It’s a big miss for the hosts, but AEK had eight players with at least six goals last season, meaning Almeyda should still have a good amount of attacking quality at his disposal.
Greek teams are typically tough to beat at their place, but AEK heads into Wednesday’s encounter with a pretty poor home record in Europe. The team played out a 2-2 draw at home in the last round against Dinamo Zagreb, and the result has left AEK sitting on only one win through its last eight Champions League home outings. An imminent improvement in form is needed for the team to remain in contention in the Champions League this season.
