FK Zorya Luhansk vs Gent prediction: EUROPE: Europa Conference League – Group Stage betting tips on match 2023-09-20 19:00.
Zorya Luhansk will be hoping it’s fifth time lucky in their ongoing bid to progress from the group stages of European competition, with the Ukrainian outfit returning to the UEFA Europa Conference League (UECL) after missing out last season. They’ve already suffered plenty of disappointment this term, as they were knocked out of Europa League qualification by an 83rd minute second-leg goal by Slavia Prague.
That heartbreak was exacerbated by a dreadful start to the domestic season that saw Zorya win just one of their first six league matches (D2, L3). A 2-1 defeat against Metalist at the weekend kept Mladen Bartulović’s men in the bottom four of their league and hardly serves as good preparation for an inaugural meeting with Belgian outfit Gent. A loss here would be a third in succession for Zorya, a fate they’ve already suffered once this year having previously not done so since 2018.
There are no such concerns for travelling Gent, whose exceptional start to the league campaign has left them as the only unbeaten side in Belgium’s top flight after six matches (W4, D2). The Buffalos’ 1-1 draw with Leuven at the weekend served as a rare blip in what’s been a stellar season, as Hein Vanhaezebrouck’s men have already come through three rounds of UECL qualifying to reach the group stage.
Their goalscoring has been most impressive on that journey, having already registered exactly five goals three times in European action. Gent may well need that attack to keep firing if they’re to overcome a miserable H2H record against Ukrainian opposition (W1, D1, L6), but achieving that should leave them confident of reaching the knockout stage of a UEFA competition for the fourth time since 2019.
Players to watch: Zorya’s Eduardo Guerrero has already netted twice this season, with both goals arriving inside the opening 20 minutes. Gent hitman Hugo Cuypers has already reached double figures for goals this term – he’s directly contributing to one every 84.5 minutes (G10, A1).
Hot stat: Gent’s six European qualifiers this season have produced an average of 4.33 goals per game!