Red Star Belgrade vs College Europa Prediction & Betting Tips - Champions League

Prediction published on 15/08/2020, 10:06  by James | Modified on 16/08/2020 at 16:05 in Champions League Predictions

This crazy time warp of a season continues with the final stages of the Champions League 2019-20 taking place at the same time as the early stages of the new 2020-21 season's competition. Serbian giants Red Star Belgrade play host to Gibraltarian side Europa FC in the first qualifying round. This round would usually have two legs but UEFA, in a bid to ease fixture congestion, have made all of the qualifying rounds leading up to the play-off qualifiers single-leg ties. The luck of the draw would decide the destination of the tie, as is commonplace in domestic cup competitions. This takes place in Belgrade. Europa FC have only made it past this stage of the competition before, falling at the first qualifying hurdle once before in the 2017-18 season. Red Star, also known as FK Crvena Zvezda, have a glittering history in European competition. They are the most decorated Serbian club in European competition and won the European Cup back in 1991 before it was revamped as the Champions League. They found it tougher to compete with Europe's elite after this but reached the group stages of the competition in the last two seasons.

Managed by former footballer Dejan Stankovic, Red Star are coming off the back of their third consecutive Serbian Superliga title win. Europa qualified for European competition as they were top of the league when the Gibraltar FA decided to end the season early. They withheld the title but awarded European places. Europa have rarely come up against an opponent as strong as Red Star and their away record makes a win look extremely unlikely. They have lost seven of their last eight European away games. Red Star were unbeaten in five of their seven European home games last season. The season before that they recorded a 2-0 home victory over eventual winners Liverpool. We think that Red Star will win quite comfortably. Back over 4.5 goals.