Dyn. Kyiv vs Lazio prediction: EUROPE: Europa League – League phase betting tips on match 2024-09-24 19:00.
[p]After narrowly missing out on the UEFA Champions League (UCL) this season, Dynamo Kyiv return to the UEFA Europa League (UEL), a competition in which they last competed in 2022/23. Back then, they finished bottom of a four-team group, so they’ll be hoping for better in the new eight-game league phase, although they start their European campaign having just dropped their first points of the domestic season following a 0-0 draw with Rukh Lviv (W5, D1).[/p]
[p]Playing their home matches in Hamburg due to Ukraine’s conflict with Russia may put Dynamo at a disadvantage, and they’ve tasted defeat in their last four UEL fixtures as the designated home side without scoring. As they prepare to face Lazio, their record against Italian clubs is also poor (W2, D8, L16), and they’ve ominously lost their last three such meetings as the ‘home’ side, conceding exactly twice in each.[/p]
[p]Like their upcoming opponents, Lazio’s last appearance in the UEL came in 2022/23 when they also failed to progress from the group stage, and they have unfinished business in this competition in more ways than one, having finished as runners-up in 1997/98 in its previous guise as the UEFA Cup. Sunday’s 2-1 defeat to Fiorentina was not the build-up that Marco Baroni’s side would have liked, as their inconsistent start to the season continued (W2, D1, L2).[/p]
[p]While the Italian outfit have impressive European pedigree, lifting the 1998/99 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup and the following campaign’s UEFA Super Cup, this will be Baroni’s first taste of continental football as a manager. It could be a baptism of fire for the ex-Roma defender, as Lazio have only won one of their last 12 UEL fixtures on the road (D2, L9), although they have won both previous away H2Hs.[/p]
[p]Players to watch: Dynamo’s Oleksandr Pikhalyonok likes a late strike, as three of his four goals this season have arrived after the 80th minute, including two in UCL qualifying. Also dangerous late on, Gustav Isaksen has netted four times for Lazio since joining, with three of those goals having come after the 70th minute.[/p]
[p]Hot streak: Dynamo’s last four European games have each produced exactly two goals (W1, D2, L1).[/p]
[p][i]Written by John Pennington[/i][/p]