Apollon Limassol host Vaduz of Liechtenstein in round six of the Europa Conference League group stage, with both teams unable to qualify for the knockout stages after defeats last week.
The Cypriot side will maintain a third-placed standing in Group E if they avoid defeat to Vaduz on Thursday evening, a nice consolation to round off an ultimately unsuccessful European campaign.
Match preview
Limassol travelled to Slovakia to face SC Dnipro-1 in round five knowing they needed a win to keep their chances of qualification alive, but a solitary Oleksandr Pikhalyonok goal in the first half for the hosts means the best David Catala's side can finish now is in third place in the group.
Expectations may have been higher heading into that clash in Eastern Europe given the fact in the previous round Limassol beat group-leaders AZ Alkmaar and gave themselves a real fighting chance of achieving passage to the playoff round at least of this year's competition.
Unfortunately there is only pride and prize money to play for now on Thursday evening, which may see the Limassol boss rotate his side considering the competitiveness of his team's domestic league, where they will be hoping to secure a consecutive European berth for next season.
That win against the Dutch giants Alkmaar is the source of 75% of the team's group-stage points, with the only other positive result so far coming against Thursday's opponents in a goalless draw back in September.
Sitting second bottom in the second division of Swiss football, Vaduz must be proud of their performance last time out as they narrowly lost on home soil to AZ Alkmaar and their displays overall in this year's group stage.
Alessandro Mangiarratti's men have collected two points in five European matches so far, scoring two goals away in Slovakia against Dnipro-1 and holding Thursday's hosts Limassol to a draw at Rheinpark Stadion in round one.
A win in their final Conference League matchday would secure third in Group E, which would be a massive achievement for a club that may be playing third-division football by the start of next season.
Vaduz are likely to be back at this stage next campaign given that the winners of Liechtenstein's cup competition earn a Europa Conference League place, so you imagine that the away support in Cyprus on Thursday will be looking forward to more continental adventures in the future instead of missing this year's too much.
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Team News
Limassol will be without midfielder Bassel Jradi after he received a straight red for violent conduct during the final stages of his team's trip to Slovakia last week.
Fortunately Catala has a plethora of options in the middle of the park even without Jradi, with Israel Coll and Danilo Spoljaric likely to start as the defensive-midfield duo.
Vaduz are likely to make changes compared to the team that lost 2-0 away at Bellinzona in the league over the weekend as they look to record a first win in the group stages this season.
Tunahan Cicek is the club's top goalscorer domestically with six goals, and should replace Manuel Sutter in the starting XI for the trip to Cyprus.
Apollon Limassol possible starting lineup:
Jovanovic; Cabral, Kyriakou, Jovanovic, Aleesami; Coll, Spoljaric, Pittas, Ongenda, Joosten, Henty
Vaduz possible starting lineup:
Buchel; Ulrich, Xhemajli, Iodice, Goelzer; Fosso, Gajic, Dobras; Hadzi, Sasere, Cicek
We say: Apollon Limassol 2-1 Vaduz
Despite being the weakest team in the group based on domestic league rankings, Vaduz have caused problems for every team they have played in the Conference League so far this year.
Limassol will be keen to finish the group stage in third place, and in front of their home faithful, we can see them narrowly achieving that on Thursday evening with a victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Carter White
