FK Liepaja vs BK Hacken Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Both Liepaja and Hacken commence their European campaigns on Thursday and it will be a short one for one of these sides. Swedish side Hacken are the firm favourites with the bookies but Latvia’s Liepaja will fancy they have a chance, with home advantage in the 1st Leg.

They were only officially formed in 2014 but they have been very successful in Latvia, at least during their four years of existence. They’ve finished in the top four each season and were Latvian Cup winners last term, whilst also ending up in 2nd place in the league.

This will be their fourth European tie and they’ve only won 1 of the previous 3, seeing off Crusaders of Northern Ireland last season at this stage before narrowly exiting against Sūduva Marijampolė from neighbouring Lithuania. This will probably be a tougher test than either of those games against opponents from the stronger Swedish Allsvenskan.

Hacken are by no means the strongest side in Sweden though. The Gothenburg club are currently down in 8th place in their domestic league, which is nearing the halfway point and are struggling badly to live up to the standard they set last term.

They don’t have great recent memories of European football either, with their most recent venture ending at the first hurdle at the hands of Cork City in 2016. They will fancy they can win the home leg but this is likely to be a pretty tight game and it would be a bit of surprise if we saw many goals.

Hacken have been struggling to net on their travels all season. They’ve failed to score in 5 of their last 7 away games in all competitions with all of those games producing under 2.5 goals in total. With only one away league win to their name this term, they will probably be content to return to Sweden level pegging.

The Latvian League is fairly weak so it’s hard to judge Liepaja but their recent European campaigns may tell us a little about what kind of game to expect here. 5 of their 6 European games have produced under 2.5 goals in total while all of their home matches in continental competitions have done likewise.

All things considered, this one is unlikely to develop into a classic and backing Under 2.5 Goals could be the way to go.