FK Partizan Belgrade vs FK Rigas Futbola Skola Prediction & Betting Tips - Europa League

Prediction published on 25/08/2020, 04:25  by James | Modified on 25/08/2020 at 05:25 in Europa League Predictions

The dust will barely have settled on Sevilla's latest trophy win when the new Europa League campaign kicks off later in the week. Among the ties of the first qualifying round are FK Partizan against FK Rigas at the Partizan Stadium in Belgrade. All qualifying matches, including the play-off round, will be played as single-leg ties. Partizan made it to this competition by finishing second, behind bitter rivals Red Star, in the Serbian SuperLiga last term. Rigas also qualified for Europa League football by finishing second in their domestic league, the Virsliga, the Latvian top flight. This is the first time that the clubs have ever met in European competition. For Rigas, a club founded in 2011, it is only the second season in which they will participate in Europe. Last year, they crashed in the then two-legged first qualifying round of the Europa League. One notable detail of their 4-3 aggregate defeat to Slovenian side NK Olimpija Ljubljana that could bode well in Serbia was that they won the away leg 3-2.

One of the giants of Serbian football, Partizan have had a proud European history, the high point of which was a European Cup final appearance that ended in defeat to Real Madrid in 1966. While they have failed to come close to hitting those heights again since, they have regularly reached the group stages of both the Champions League and the Europa League. During this time, they have built up an impressive home record, going unbeaten in 12 of their last 14 home games in European competition. Partizan's forward Umar Sadiq scored five goals in last season's UEL and he's started the domestic season well, scoring three times in five league appearances. Japanese attacker Takuma Asano is also a player who could cause Rigas problems, he has six goals in five games. We expect the more experienced Partizan, who average 3.2 goals per game this season, to win big. Back over 3.5 goals.