Olimpija Ljubljana and Kairat Almaty are bound to meet in the first round of the Champions League qualifiers, with the first leg scheduled for Tuesday.
Last season, Olimpija reached the knockout stages of the Conference League, where they were surprisingly eliminated by Borac Banja Luka, a team with a much weaker reputation in European football. Still, it was a solid season for Olimpija, who also won the title in Slovenia.
Since they're starting the UCL qualifiers from the first round, Olimpija didn't have a long break, but that didn't seem to affect their players much if we can judge by the pre-season matches that Olimpija played. In four friendly games, Olimpija recorded three wins and one draw, so they seem to be ready to go.
On the other hand, Kairat Almaty are in full competitive mode since Kazakhstan's championship is in progress and Kairat are currently second in the standings, one point behind Astana.
They are also on a good run of form with four wins and a draw in their last five games in the league, although they suffered three losses in a row before that, including one against Ordabasy that saw them get eliminated from the Kazakhstan Cup.
How the bookies view it: Olimpija backed by the bookies to win
The odds on Olimpija to win this match are just 4/6 at BoyleSports, so they are pretty clearly favoured to win this game. Meanwhile, BoyleSports offers 3/1 odds on Kairat to win the game and 13/5 odds on a draw.
Recent head-to-head: No previous meetings
These two teams will meet for the first time on Tuesday.
Players to watch: Olimpija believes in Alex Tamm
The team from Ljubljana lost their top scorer from last season, Raul Florucz, who moved to Union SG for €5 million this summer. While that's a solid fee, Olimpija probably wouldn't have done it if they didn't trust their young Estonian striker Alex Tamm.
To his credit, Tamm seems to be thriving as the main focus of Olimpija's attack, if we can judge by pre-season matches. The forward has been in great form, scoring four goals in the same number of games, so backing him up to score against Kairat makes sense. That being said, we still couldn't find odds for player markets, so you'll have to keep an eye on that to see if you can even place this bet before the game kicks off.
Predicted lineups
Olimpija: Vidovsek, Silva, Ratnik, Muhamedbegovic, Lasickas, Pinto, Agba, Doffo, Boultam, Tamm, Brest
Kairat: Anarbekov, Tapalov, Shirobokov, Sorokin, Tashpulatov, Sadybekov, Baybek, Stanojev, Monteiro, Bagdat, Ricardinho
Anything else catch the eye?
Olimpija managed to keep a clean sheet in five of their last six games, while the same is true for Kairat's last three matches. So, with both teams doing well on defence lately, we don't see both teams scoring in this match, which is priced at 20/21 at BoyleSports.
Additionally, we believe that Olimpija will win the game, so betting on the hosts to win to nil at 2/1 odds seems quite enticing.
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