Botev Plovdiv v Apoel Nicosia Betting Tips [20 July 2022]

The second round of the Europa Conference League qualification sees Bulgarian club Botev Plovdiv take on Cypriot champions APOEL Nicosia at the Levski Stadium in the capital city of Sofia. APOEL, who finished third in the Cyprus First Division last season, are competing in the Conference League for the first time after making the playoff of the Europa League in the 2020-21 campaign. They will have to battle against a lack of match fitness as their domestic season isn’t scheduled to start for more than a month. Their opponents today finished third in the Bulgarian top flight and will be making their first appearance in a UEFA sanctioned event since the 2017-18 season where they made the third qualifying round of the Europa League. The hosts may be the sharper side for this match given that their new league campaign recently kicked off in the beginning of July, although Plovdiv lost their two opening matches. 

After struggling to find the back of the net in their first two friendly matches of the season, each finishing as 0-0 draws, APOEL got back to scoring ways in the next two. The 28-time-league winners notched two goals in each of the last two matches and will be encouraged by their defensive performance of three clean sheets in the last four outings. Thrylos come into this match as favorites despite being the away team which speaks to their pedigree in European competition and their results over the years. For the hosts, they’ll face a tough task here given the slow start to the season that they are experiencing. Plovdiv bravely battled back from two goals down in their most recent outing before ultimately giving up the winner late in the match to suffer a demoralizing loss. They’ll need to improve on the defensive end to stand a chance against a strong APOEL side who overall possess more quality in the side than the Bulgarians.