KF Drita vs Malmo FF Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

UEFA Champions League qualifying has undergone a bit of a revamp this year. With more group places automatically going to the sides from the major European leagues, it’s a long road to that stage for teams like Drita and Malmo. The Swedes will at least have ambitions of getting that far and it’s hard to see them having too much trouble in this tie.

Drita are the champions of Kosovo and they’ve already come through two rounds to get to this point. They won single-legged ties against opposition from Andorra and Gibraltar, needing Extra Time to win both matches. They created history in doing so by becoming the first team from Kosovo to win a match in any UEFA Competition, including the national team, which is yet to win a competitive fixture.

This game will clearly represent a step up in class but they will have home advantage here, something that wasn’t the case in the previous rounds. The city of Mitrovica is the setting and it’s a really big occasion for both the club and Kosovan football as a whole.

They might fancy their chances of causing an upset in the home game, particularly with Malmo enduring a really poor season in Sweden, currently sitting in mid-table in the Allsvenskan, which is approaching the half-way stage. Having won the title in each of the last two seasons, that is some fall from grace but there are signs that Malmo are getting back to their best.

They played their first match since the summer break at the weekend and were convincing 4-0 winners away to Sirius. They looked much sharper in the final third and that’s an ominous sign heading into this match, when they should find gaps in the Drita defence.

Malmo will certainly come targeting the win and away goals but Drita will know their best and perhaps only chances of progressing from this tie lie in them winning the 1st Leg. That’s a tall order but they will give it a go and a relatively open game looks likely.

4 of Drita’s final 6 league games last season produced over 2.5 goals in total and they were 4-1 winners against Lincoln Red Imps in the last round, although 3 of their goals did come in Extra Time. Malmo games also tend to be relatively open and they’d only kept 2 clean sheets in 13 matches prior to their weekend win so there is hope for the hosts to get on the score-sheet, despite their status as clear underdogs.