Preview: FC Midtjylland vs Sturm Graz - prediction, team news, lineups

FC Midtjylland and Sturm Graz will kick off their Europa League league-phase campaigns on Wednesday, when they meet in the opening round of fixtures in Denmark.

The hosts progressed through three qualifying rounds to reach this stage, while their visitors dropped into the competition after a Champions League playoff-round loss.

Match preview

FC Midtjylland return to continental action on Wednesday aiming to kick off with three points in the league phase of the Europa League after enjoying a successful qualifying bid.

After their second-placed finish in the Danish Superliga last time around, they entered qualifying for Europe's secondary competition in the second round and scraped past Scottish side Hibernian in a 3-2 aggregate win after extra time.

The Hedens Drenge then saw off Fredrikstad in mid-August, before meeting Finnish champions KuPS in the playoff round and advancing with a dominant 6-0 aggregate triumph, as Junior Brumado netted a home brace alongside goals from Adam Buksa and Dario Osorio and again got on the scoresheet alongside Aral Simsir in the away leg.

They now return to action having made a pleasing start to life under the new management of Mike Tullberg, albeit losing his opener to Nordsjaelland in mid-September, having gone on to progress past Aalborg in the Landspokal Cup with a 3-0 away win before hosting Viborg on Saturday and moving up to second spot in the Danish Superliga with a 2-0 victory thanks to goals from Philip Billing and Cho Gue-sung.

FC Midtjylland now head into their first European outing under the new boss with the hopes of recording a third straight win and picking up where they left off in Europa League qualifying to get up and running.

Their visitors, meanwhile, head to Denmark for their first game of this year's competition, having fallen short at the final hurdle of Champions League qualifying.

Sturm Graz earned a place in the Champions League playoff round by retaining their Austrian Bundesliga title in the 2024-25 term, with Norwegian outfit Bodo/Glimt standing between them and the league phase.

Jurgen Saumel's sides saw their hopes all but ended in a 5-0 away first-leg beating last month, but they were, at least, able to come out on top at home in a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Seedy Jatta and Tim Oermann to bow out and drop into the Europa League league phase after a 6-2 aggregate loss.

Die Schwoazn now also return to action on the back of consecutive victories, having seen off Rothis in the Austrian Cup second round before visiting Red Bull Salzburg at the weekend and taking all three points in a 2-0 triumph thanks to goals from Tomi Horvat and Jatta.

Sturm Graz will now bid to kick off the league phase with a victory on the road on Thursday before hosting Rangers in their second outing next week.

FC Midtjylland Europa League form:

DWWWWW

FC Midtjylland form (all competitions):

WWWLWW

Sturm Graz form (all competitions):

LWWLWW

Team News

Mike Tullberg should field a similar FC Midtjylland starting XI to their league win over Viborg at the weekend, with attacker Dario Osorio likely remaining sidelined with an injury alongside Mikel Gogorza and Dani Silva.

Junior Brumado will continue to lead the attack, having managed four goals in their Europa League qualifying bid, while Cho Gue-sung may come in to join him from the start after scoring off the bench on Saturday.

Billing has been a key man since his summer arrival from AFC Bournemouth and will again start in the midfield, while Paulinho and Kevin Mbabu will compete for wing-back spots.

Sturm Graz remain unable to call on young attacker Axel Kayombo, who has been denied a debut for the club following his summer switch by an injury.

Seedy Jatta will spearhead the attack, having made it five goals for the season across all competitions this season in their win at the weekend.

Otar Kiteishvili may get an opportunity from the outset, having already managed five goals this season, and he could join Tomi Horvat in support of a front two, likely leaving Tochi Chukwuani and Jon Gorenc Stankovic to partner up in front of the back four.

FC Midtjylland possible starting lineup:

Olafsson; Diao, Erlic, Sorensen; Mbabu, Castillo, Billing, Simsir, Jensen; Cho, Brumado

Sturm Graz possible starting lineup:

Christensen; Oermann, Aiwu, Lavalee, Karic; Stankovic, Chukwuani; Kiteishvili, Horvat; Jatta, Malone

We say: FC Midtjylland 2-2 Sturm Graz

We anticipate a tight contest in this league-phase opener, particularly with both sides enjoying recent domestic wins heading in, and see a share of the spoils as the most likely outcome in Denmark.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.