The UEFA Conference League continues this Thursday as Hearts welcome Omonia Nicosia to Tynecastle Park. Both teams will be eager to secure victory and climb the table with a second straight win.
As for their individual chances, it’s all covered within our comprehensive preview.
How the bookies view it: Omonia Nicosia slight favourites
The bookies are giving Omonia Nicosia a slight edge in this encounter, with the visitors priced at 29/20 to win on the road. That means Hearts are considered underdogs, and the Scottish squad are priced at 9/5 to take victory at Tynecastle Park. Of course, such close odds confirm that even the bookies aren’t confident of a result one way or the other!
Head-to-head: Nothing to highlight
Interestingly, Hearts and Omonia Nicosia have never faced each other in an official competition before. Therefore, this will be their first competitive encounter that will go on the H2H records. That said, both sides have kicked off their Conference League campaigns with wins, indicating that they are similar in standard.
Players to watch: Andronikos Kakoullis and Yan Dhanda
Omonia Nicosia kicked off the Conference League in impressive fashion, taking a 4-0 win over Vikingur on home turf. We mention this result because Andronikos Kakoullis notched up two goals in the dying stages of that game. He found the back of the net in the 81st and 90th minute – turning an average result into a real message to the other teams.
As for Yan Dhanda, he also played a critical role in helping Hearts kick off the competition with a 2-1 win. They played Dinamo Minsk away from home, and while he was only on the pitch for 16 minutes, he stepped up and bagged the winner in injury time. This shows that Dhanda is a clutch striker when it matters most, and we will be watching him closely for this game.
Should you be eager to back either of these guys to score, you can take Kakoullis at 10/3 or Dhanda at 6/1 in the ‘anytime scorer’ markets.
Predicted lineups
Hearts certainly come into this game with the better run of fortune with no major injury blows to their squad. As for Omonia Nicosia, Roman Bezus is expected to be back in the lineup, which is a big boost. However, this is massively offset by the absence of Omer Atzill, who is out with a muscle issue.
Hearts possible starting lineup:
Clark; Sibbick, Rowles, Kingsley; Atkinson, Devlin, Baningime, Cochrane; Forrest, Shankland, Vargas
Omonia Nicosia possible starting lineup:
Uzoho; Psaltis, Panagiotou, Lang, Cassama; Loizou, Kousoulos, Diskerud, Bezus; Ansarifard, Bruno
Anything else catch the eye?
An interesting angle for this match could be the ‘both teams to score’ market. With Hearts beating Dinamo Minsk 2-0 and Omonia Nicosia beating Vikingur 4-0, both of these sides clearly don’t sit back and hope for the best.
Additionally, with this one expected to be a relatively open game, as you combine this with their previous results, it’s realistic that over 2.5 goals could be scored. As for who might score those goals, we will be watching Kakoullis and Dhanda closely!
This UEFA Europa League Conference match between Hearts and Omonia Nicosia will be played on Oct 24, 2024 and kick off at 17:45. Check below for our tipsters best Hearts vs Omonia Nicosia prediction. You may also visit our dedicated betting previews section for the most up to date previews.
