Celjevs.Flora

Grofje smashed in five goals at the Lillekula Stadium last week and are 90 minutes away from meeting either Slovan Bratislava or FC Struga in round two of qualifying.

Match preview

Celje looked a cut above their opponents last week and it took only seven minutes for the Slovenian champions to take the lead in the tie with a goal from Aljosa Matko.

Within three minutes, Celje had doubled their advantage thanks to centre-back Damir Vukicevic and they could have been out of sight by the 21st minute when Matko failed to convert from the penalty spot.

However, that proved to be only a temporary reprieve for Flora as Mark Zabukovnik slotted away the side's third goal ahead of the interval before Rolando Aarons and Tamar Svetelin completed the rout with goals in the second half.

With that result, Damir Krznar's side have now scored in 16 consecutive competitive matches across all competitions dating back to February, and are on the cusp of reaching the second round of Champions League qualifying for the second time in their history.

Aside from their huge scoreline advantage, Grofje will also gain confidence in progressing from their home record, with only one defeat conceded in their last nine matches at Stadion Z'dezele across all competitions.

Meanwhile, to illustrate just how difficult Flora found it in the first leg, we can look at the stats of the match that show Triibulised managed just a single shot on target and saw just 31% of possession on their home patch, while they did not earn a single corner.

The day after the defeat, the club announced that Norbert Hurt, who replaced Jurgen Henn just last year, had stepped down as head coach with Under-21s coach Taavi Viik taking over for the foreseeable future.

Hurt, who also served as the club's head coach from 2013 to 2016, returned to the helm in December, and under his guidance, Flora had won only half of their 20 league games this season and are already trailing Levadia by 15 points.

Barring a miraculous comeback here, Flora will drop to the Conference League qualifiers, where they will, in all likelihood, face Virtus, who suffered a 7-1 defeat in their first-leg qualifier to FCSB last week.

Celje Champions League form:

W

Celje form (all competitions):

L

W

L

W

D

W

Flora Champions League form:

L

Flora form (all competitions):

L

L

L

L

L

Team News

Despite the short turnaround returning from Euro 2024 with Slovenia, Zan Karnicnik started last week's encounter and Krznar had the luxury of withdrawing the right-back midway through the second half to keep him fresh for this match.

Summer signings Matija Kavcic and Slavko Bralic were both unused substitutes in the first leg and the defensive duo will be in line to make their debuts in this one.

Despite having scored 14 goals already this season Mark Anders Lepik went almost unnoticed last week and the side will need him to produce an incredible performance here if they are to stand any chance of making a comeback.

Andreas Vaher, who recently arrived at the club from HJK Helsinki, made his debut last week and it will be interesting to see if the new head coach sends the 20-year-old out from the start in this match or opts to bring back Marco Lukka in the heart of the defence.

Celje possible starting lineup:

Rozman; Karnicnik, Vuklisevc, Zec, Krefl; Svetlin, Zabukovnik, Bobicanec; Matko, Kucys, Menalo

Flora possible starting lineup:

Grunvald; Hussar, Lukka, Tougjas, Veering; Zenjov, Soomets, Kreida, Kuraksin; Lepik, Alliku

We say: Celje 3-0 Flora

Based on the first leg of this tie, it seems highly unlikely that we are going to see a comeback from Flora here, and considering they are the away side, this scoreline could turn ugly fast.

While Damir Krznar may see this as a good opportunity to give some of his fringe players some playing time, we still expect the hosts to secure a comfortable victory.

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