Legia Warsaw vs Spartak Trnava Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Unsurprisingly, Trnava, who play their domestic football in Slovakia, have never qualified for the group stages of this competition, and it appears that they’ve been handed a tough task on this occasion. Having scraped through against Bosnian side Zrinjski in the last round, Miroslav Karhan’s men could struggle against a Legia side that featured alongside Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund in the group stages back in 2016.

Having failed to replicate their 2016 achievement of reaching the group stages, Legia came up short last season when they were knocked out by Astana in qualifying, though having comfortably come through the last round, beating Cork City by four goals to nil on aggregate, Dean Klafurić’s men ought to fancy their chances of, at the very least, getting through to the next stage of the current qualifying campaign.

Of the qualifiers taking place on Tuesday afternoon/evening, this could be the most straightforward. In truth, although Trnava battled hard to come through against Bosnian opposition in the last round, they were a tad fortunate. The Slovakian outfit competed well at home during the first-leg, though they were outplayed away from home, rode their luck defensively, offered next to nothing offensively and probably should have gone out. But for a lack of end-product from Zrinjski, who created the chances to progress, Trnava would not be on their way to Poland this week.

In contrast, Legia breezed past Cork City; they dominated away from home, where they really ought to have won by more than a goal to nil, while they finished the job off with minimal fuss when winning by three goals to nil in the home leg. A similar performance against this opposition should see the hosts make it through with something to spare.

In addition to their exploits in the last round, Trnava are not the best team away from home in general, while they’ve tended to struggle against the better teams in their own division in recent times. When they visited Zilina back in May, Klafurić’s men were all over the place and conceded six, while Slovan Bratislava didn’t have much trouble notching a couple against them prior to that.

Interestingly, Legia faced Trnava’s opponents from the last round just two years ago in qualifying for this competition. At home, the Polish side came out on top by two goals to nil without overly exerting themselves.

After contrasting performances in the last round, Legia are the only team to side with on this occasion. Against a side who’re expected to offer little resistance at Marszałka Józefa Piłsudskiego on Tuesday evening, backing ‘Legia to Score Over 1.5 Goals’ is a must, while a smaller bet on ‘Legia -1 Handicap’ is also merited.