Hammarby – Twente

At least three goals will be scored in the clash of ambitious rivals

Hammarby is far from being the most titled club in Sweden, but in the last six or seven years it has shown serious ambitions. At the end of last season, the team from the capital finished in third place and managed to win a ticket to the Conference League. Preparation for the start of the European arena, unfortunately, affected Hammarby's results in the championship. The team was so prepared for the trip to Enschede that they lost to Brommapojkarn. Already after the first match against Twente, the capital club rehabilitated themselves in the championship and slightly corrected the tournament situation with a victory over Norrköping, bringing themselves closer to the real ambitions of the team. Hammarby are now in sixth place, with one more match played than the surrounding Allsvenskan clubs. The season in the Dutch elite division hasn't started yet, so the meeting with the Swedes a week ago was the first official game for Twente after the off-season. The team is about to start its fifth consecutive Eredivisie season. The previous two were Conference League qualifiers. Last European season, Twente managed to qualify for the third round of the tournament, but managed to fall to Fiorentina in the final stage of qualifying, to whom they lost with a total score of 1-2. Subsequently, the Violets reached the final of the Conference League, where they lost to West Ham United. In the last Dutch championship, Twente finished in fifth place, which gave them the right to participate in a play-off for the right to play in the Conference League. The club from Enschede proved this right in duels with Heerenveen and Sparta. In the first match between the rivals last Thursday, one team tried to play while the other tried to hinder the former. In the Netherlands, the Swedish club faced Twente as an underdog. Despite a 0-1 defeat, Marty Sifuentes' men clearly squeezed the maximum out of the away game, as they failed to hit the net a single time. In Stockholm, we should expect a football with a different balance of power and ambitions. The weaker club needs to attack to equalise the duel. That means exposing their backs, which even at the level of the Swedish league are not considered very reliable. We bet that the rivals will celebrate goals at least three times.