Hajduk Split vs Vitoria Guimaraes Predictions

• Hajduk Split won 12 of 18 home league games last season.
• Hajduk Split have won both of their league games this season by 2-0 scorelines.
• Vitoria Guimaraes are set to be without injured midfielder Andre Almeida again.

Home comforts favour Hajduk

Two clubs that tend to fare much better at home than on their travels meet in the Europa Conference League third qualifying round on Thursday. Hajduk won 12 of their 18 league games at Stadion Poljud last term while Vitoria Guimaraes won 30 of their 48 Primeira Liga points at home in 2021-22.

The Croatian giants won only three road games all season and lost nine – so they probably feel they need to earn an advantage of some kind to take to Estádio Dom Afonso Henriques for the return leg. For on-loan Vitoria defender Toni Borevković it will be like going home – but a two-year-old Uefa suspension prevents him from featuring in the first game.

Hajduk will also be without injured midfielder Marco Fossati and striker Nikola Kalinić. Valdas Dambrauskas’ side have been in good early-season form domestically and can do justice to the 5/4 favourites tag they take into this game.

Vitoria without star man again

Vitoria are likely to be without star midfielder Andre Almeida again as he only rejoined training on Monday after a few days off due to a leg muscle injury. Almeida did not travel to Hungary last Thursday, where Vitoria Guimaraes played out a goalless second leg with Puskas Academy to progress 3-0 on aggregate.

This will be a much tougher assignment and their squad depth might not be up to the challenge of keeping the hosts out.  A 2-0 home win gets our vote in correct score betting as the hosts are yet to concede in three competitive games this term while Vitoria are yet to prove they can really cut it without Almeida.