Rovaniemi v Lokomotiva Zagreb – EL Qualifications

The Croatian team is travelling to Finland to face off against Rovaniemi in Europa League Quarter-finals qualification.

Rovaniemi:
Looking at their previous season, Rovaniemi had a great run. They even got really close to winning the title, but disappointed in the last three rounds, where they let the title slip out of their hands due to bad performances. In the end, they had to settle with 2nd place, 1 point behind SJK. Despite the disappointment, Rovaniemi can be proud of finishing ahead of HJS Helsinki, which are one (if not THE) best team in Finland. With such a good season behind them, their ambitions and expectations should be high for this year’s season. In the current season, they sit at 6th place and that means only one thing. Being 11 points behind Mariehamn and HJK, the title race is over for Rovaniemi. However, an improvement in form is clearly seen. The home side has not tasted a defeat in the past 7 matches. 2 matches that stand out are against league leaders, HJK (1:1) and Mariehamn (0:0) were both unable to defeat Rovaniemi. The good performances were not only seen in the domestic league, but also in European competitions, when the Finnish team defeated Shamrock Rovers, thus advancing to the next stage.

Lokomitiva:
As well as their opponents, Lokomotiva had a good season. 4th position and reaching the quarter-finals of Croatian Cup is a decent result, especially when we take into account the top 3 spots in Croatian domestic league are mainly “reserved” for Dinamo Zagreb, Rijaka and Hajduk. In previous leg, Lokomotiva easily passed the team from Andora (Santa Coloma), winning both matches (1:3) and (4:1). Those high scoring result show, that Lokomotiva can be dangerous and with good performances from the likes of Maric (3 goals in 2 matches), Prenga (2 goals) as well as Coric and Peric.

Verdict:
There is no doubt, that Lokomotiva is a team that prefers the attacking style of play, so we can expect a lot of dangerous situations. But with that style, there is a small flaw, counterattacks. All in all I see this match to be an open one with a few goals.

Prediction: Over 2.5
Odds: 2.07 SBOBET