Rakow – Qarabag

The rivals will not score more than two goals against each other in Poland

Raków became Polish champions for the first time last season. Despite the fact that historically this club is not rich in trophies, the team from Czestochowa has some decent players, whose total value is estimated at almost 40 million euros. The backbone of the team is made up of foreign players, more than half of whom are in the main squad. At the first stage of qualification, Raków faced a club that any self-respecting Champions League team should beat with confidence. However, in the first meeting with Flora, the Polish players failed to broaden their shoulders, modestly beating the Estonians 1-0 thanks to Kochergin's strike. The return meeting took place in Tallinn immediately after Rakuv's defeat in the National Super Cup. All the anger of the Polish squad turned into a crushing defeat for Flora with the score of 0:3. In general, such a high performance of the duel is not peculiar to Raków. In each of the previous two European Cup seasons, the team played six games in the Conference League, falling one step away from the group stage. Of the twelve meetings played during that period, nine of them contained fewer than three goals scored. Recently, Raków kicked off the new Polish league season with a 3-0 home defeat of Jagiellonia, who failed to score a single goal in the match. The reliability of the Polish champion's defence is evident from match to match. Bookmakers considered the home team as the favourites for the upcoming match, offering odds of 2.04 on their victory. It is unlikely that the opponents will go on the offensive. Karabakh has been led by Kurban Kurbanov since 2008. By this year, the Azerbaijani head coach has led the club to its tenth championship title. In the previous nine seasons, the team consistently played in the group stage of the Champions League and Europa League, and the last two years reached the 1/16 finals of the Conference League. A club with such stable results in European tournaments and such a wise coach will definitely study their opponents in depth and try to neutralise their strongest sides. Qarabag will play from defence, trying to "take" the opponent with his own weapons, which will lead to a bet on TM(2.5).