Partizani Tirana vs Ferencváros Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Partizani Tirana are late entrants into the competition after Albanian champions Skënderbeu Korçë were kicked out for match-fixing. They finished 7 points behind Skenderbeu last season but did lose 3 fewer games so they are a tough side to beat. They’ve already played in the Europa League, drawing their 1st Leg at home to Slovan Bratislava 0-0 a fortnight ago only for the 2nd Leg to be cancelled after their promotion into this competition. This should be a tougher game but Albanian football is clearly on the rise with Skenderbeu making the play-off round of this competition last year and becoming the first Albanian side to play in the group phase of a European competition while Albania’s qualification and solid showing at Euro 2016 shows their football is in a good state.

The same could be said of Hungary for that matter and Ferencváros do have a proud tradition in this competition. They won the Hungarian League for the 1st time in 12 years last term to enter the Champions League for the first time since 2004-05 when they overcame KF Tirana at this stage. Their recent record in Europe is not great though and their last 3 European campaigns have all ended in the 2nd Qualifying Round of the Europa League against fairly undistinguished opponents.

The Hungarians are a well organised unit and pretty solid at the back. They’ve played two friendlies ahead of this game and both finished 0-0 with Standard Liège their most recent opponents. Their last 2 competitive games both ended in 1-0 wins and they are likely to try and keep things tight here and hope to win the tie in the 2nd Leg in Budapest.

Partizani games don’t tend to attract many goals either. Last season 24 of their 36 league games had under 2.5 goals. They had the best defensive record in Albania but scored 22 fewer goals than the champions and may struggle to break down their well-organised opponents here, who are also a little short in terms of cutting edge.

Therefore backing there to be under 2.5 goals at 4/5 looks good here.