Braga-Panathinaikos is a match valid for the first leg of the Champions League qualifying playoffs and is played Wednesday at 9 p.m.: predictions.
The new edition of the Champions League is now upon us. The framework of participants is now defined. Only the last six passes remain to be awarded in order to enter the group stage of the top continental competition.
And it will be the play-offs, the last stage of the preliminaries that began at the beginning of July, that will decide who will be able to challenge the most prestigious teams in Europe, while also pocketing part of the prize money, a not insignificant detail especially for small clubs participating in leagues that are, so to speak, “peripheral” and certainly not sailing in gold. One of the most compelling challenges, besides the one between Rangers and Psv Eindhoven, faces Braga and Panathinaikos. The Portuguese, who were eliminated in the Conference League last year by Fiorentina, have only made it to the Champions group stage twice in their history, in the 2010-11 and 2012-13 seasons. On both occasions they had to go through the preliminaries: 11 years ago they interrupted Udinese’s dream, ousted on penalty kicks. Artur Jorge’s men are coming off a fairly straightforward third round, in which they smashed seven goals between the first leg and the second leg to the lowly Serbian side Backa Topola. Plenty of goals were also seen in the two matches played in the league: Braga debuted with a home loss to Famalicao (1-2), followed by a thrilling success at home to Chaves, beaten 4-2 last Saturday.
Panathinaikos executioner of Marseille
Of preliminary rounds, on the other hand, Panathinaikos, coached by Serbian Ivan Jovanovic, had to overcome two. The Greeks, however, unlike Braga were able to focus exclusively on their European commitments, as they have not yet made their league debut.
Ioannidis
The Athenian club, which has not set foot in the Champions League since 2010, after eliminating Dnipro-1 (1-3 and 2-2) achieved the feat, sending home the much more emblazoned Marseille, relegated to the Europa League at the end of a double challenge with a thousand emotions. Panathinaikos had won the first leg match 1-0, but in the return leg in France a double by Aubameyang was condemning them to elimination. But in mid-recovery a goal by Ioannidis sent the match first to extra time and then to penalties, where Guendouzi’s mistake was decisive. Among the best on the field was former Benevento man Brignoli.
The prediction
Braga is favored, also in view of qualification, but woe to underestimate Panathinaikos, which has already tripped Marseille and will have the advantage of playing in front of its very warm fans in the return leg. We are betting on home success in any case, in a match of at least two goals total, given the trend of the two teams so far.
The probable lineups of Braga-Panathinaikos
- BRAGA (4-4-2): Matheus; Victor Gomez, Fonte, Niakaté, Marin; Pizzi, Vitor Carvalho, Al-Musrati, Bruma; R. Horta, Djaló.
- PANATHINAIKOS (4-2-3-1): Brignoli; Vagiannidis, Jedvaj, Magnusson, Mladenovic; Vilhena, Perez; Mancini, Djuricic, Bernard; Ioannidis.
POSSIBLE RESULT: 2-1
