Rapid Vienna and FK Borac Banja lock horns at the Allianz Stadion in the second leg of their UEFA Europa Conference League round-of-16 clash on Thursday. Having settled for a share of the spoils in last week’s first leg, a place in the quarter-finals remains very much up for grabs and this makes for an exciting contest.
Rapid Vienna were sent crashing back down to earth in the Austrian Bundesliga last Sunday when they fell to a 2-1 defeat against Hartberg at the TSV Stadion.
Before that, Robert Klauss’ men snapped their run of six consecutive league games without a win on March 1 courtesy of an emphatic 5-0 victory over Altach on home turf.
Rapid now turn their focus back to the Conference League, where they stormed through the group stages, finishing fourth in the standings with 13 points from six games, before playing out a 1-1 draw with Borac in the first leg of their last-16 clash last Thursday.
Over in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Borac failed to return to winning ways last time out when they were held to a 1-1 draw by FK Željezničar in their Premier League clash.
Before that, Mladen Žižovic’s men saw their run of three consecutive victories across all competitions come to an end when they played out a 1-1 draw with Rapid at the Banja Luka City Stadium.
While Borac will be looking to reach the Conference League quarter-finals, they will need to be at their best on Thursday, having won just one of their most recent five matches in the European competition.
Given the stakes of this tie, we expect Rapid Vienna and Borac to throw the kitchen sink at the Allianz Stadion as they look to reach the quarter-finals.
While we expect Borac to put up a fight, we predict Rapid will make the most of their home advantage and secure the desired result.
Prediction: Rapid Vienna 3-1 FK Borac Banja
Tip 1: Result - Rapid Vienna to win
Tip 2: Both sides to score - Yes (Both sides have scored in seven of Rapid’s last eight games)
Tip 3: Over 2.5 goals - Yes (Both sides have also scored in seven of the hosts’ last eight matches)