Viktoria Plzen vs Ludogorets Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

15 minutes of poor play on Wednesday severely damaged Viktoria Plzen’s hopes of qualifying for the Champions League group stages this season. They didn’t perform overly bad throughout the match during their visit to Ludogorets, but they gave away a penalty five minutes after the break to go a goal down and then conceded again 13 minutes later. 1-0 is a recoverable scoreline, but a 2-0 deficit will be difficult to overturn for the hosts.

Viktoria Plzen followed up this 2-0 away defeat with a 2-0 loss at home to Zlin in the Czech Liga on Saturday as well, so at the moment their confidence will be at a low. The defeat to Ludogorets ended their 11 match unbeaten streak, so it’s understandable that they are feeling quite vulnerable at the moment.

It won’t help matters that Viktoria Plzen were knocked out at this stage of the Champions League last season either, and at the moment, it looks unlikely that they will replicate their form from a couple of seasons ago. Here they made it to the group stages and finished 3rd in a group involving Bayern Munich, Manchester City, and CSKA Moscow.

Ludogorets also failed to make it into the group stages last season as they were knocked out in the 2nd Qualifying Round. The season before that they made it to the group stages for the first time though, which isn’t bad considering they only made their debut in the competition in the 2012/13 season.

The visitors followed up their triumph in the first leg with another 2-0 victory, this time at home against Montana to make it seven wins from their last nine outings in all competitions.

Ludogorets will feel confident coming into this clash with a commanding lead, and I expect them to set up quite defensively as they look to maintain that comfortable gap. They have only lost four of their last 19 trips away as well, whilst Viktoria Plzen have only won one of their last six home matches, with four of them ending all square.

This makes odds of 4/6 for a Ludogorets Win or Draw Double Chance look good value to me, and I’m going for a 1-1 correct score prediction at 11/2 as well.