Celje vs. Vitora Guimaraes projection 03.08.2023 Conference League

Competition: Second Foot of the League of Europa Conference Qualifying Round.
• Thursday, August 4, 2023
• Scrimmage: 1 / 21: 15 CEST + 20:15 UTC
• Estádio D. Afonso Henriques( Guimares )

Guimaraes, Victoria have been mostly a mid-table team in Portugal in recent years. They have been between the 5th and 7th place during the previous five seasons. Last season they were 6th but were disappointing in Europe, where they were eliminated in the third qualifying round of the League of Europa Conference by Hajduk Split on a 3:2 aggregate. 

Celje secured Western qualifiers and finished second in the Romanian league last season, six points behind Olimpija Ljubljana. Since playing in the Intertoto Cup in 1997, the Yellow and Blues have had very much success in Europe. This time, they will attempt to win the group stage of any European rivals.

Guimaraes, Victoria vs Celje pick: 2.5 ambitions or more

In the first leg, we saw a fairly equal game where Guimaraes, Victoria won 4:3. Still, Celje can’t be too unhappy as they scored their third goal in the stoppage time and kept them alive before the second leg. So, Celje will have to open up, and that could mean we will see another high-scoring game from these two teams.

Guimaraes, Victoria are the favorites in this match and should score fairly easily at home since they have already done it four times in Slovenia. But defensively, they haven’t shown us much in the first match and the pre-season, either. In six friendlies, they only kept a clean sheet once. 

This year, Celje has only participated in high-scoring activities. With ten goals in their first three established games, they are performing extremely well offensively. However, at least at this point in the season, their security is a major concern. The final activity, which they won 5:0 against Mura, was their only effective defensive performance. Prior to that, if we include the games, they allowed at least two ambitions in six straight games. Therefore, it is reasonable to anticipate that they will permit Portugal to score at least two targets.