LASK Linz will bid to pull off a memorable comeback when they welcome Slavia Prague to the NV Arena for the second leg of their Europa Conference last 16 tie.
After winning 4-1 in the Czech Republic last Thursday, the visitors will look to the see job through in Austria.
Match preview
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LASK suffered a demoralising defeat in the first leg last week as a Yira Sor brace and strikes from Peter Olayinka and Ibrahim Traore guided Slavia Prague to a 4-1 victory.
The only bright spark of the contest for the Austrian side was a second half effort from Husein Balic, but they will need more than one goal if they are to overturn the first leg result on Thursday.
They did, however, demonstrate at the weekend that they can score at will, as Andreas Wieland's side thumped WSG Tirol 6-0 at home in the Austrian Bundesliga.
The hosts took a three-goal lead into half time after Florian Flecker netted a brace following Keito Nakamura's opener and the goals continued to flow in the second period, with Peter Michorl and Alexander Schmidt getting on the scoresheet before Nakamura grabbed his second goal of the encounter.
Despite enduring a disappointing domestic season, LASK can be encouraged by their recent eight-game unbeaten home in all competitions, and perhaps what is most impressive is that they have kept six clean sheets in that period.
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As for the visitors, they may feel that they have one foot in the last eight after an emphatic victory in the first leg.
However, Jindrich Trpisovsky will be warning his players against complacency, as he looks to guide his side to the Europa Conference League quarter-finals.
Despite their comfortable victory in the first leg, Slavia Prague will be in a slightly downbeat mood after they saw a run of seven consecutive victories come to an end on Sunday.
Olayinka's own goal proved enough to give Slovan Liberec a 1-0 home victory, as Slavia Prague failed to take advantage of the fact that their opponents played 70 minutes of the encounter with 10 men following Lukas Stetina's red card.
The Czech First League champions will aim to pick themselves back up after Sunday's result and having not lost a match by three or more goals this season, Slavia Prague will be confident that they can progress on Thursday.
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Team News
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Marko Roguz and Petar Filipovic will both miss out for the hosts due to groin and knee problems respectively.
Sacha Horvath returned to the squad at the weekend, and he could be in line to start the second leg.
Meanwhile, Nakamura could retain his place in the side after scoring two goals in the 6-0 victory over WSG Tirol on Sunday.
Slavia Prague will have to cope without the services of Jan Boril, Oscar Dorley and Taras Kacharaba, who are all ruled out due to injury issues.
Lukas Masopust missed the first leg, but he could feature on Thursday, while Traore will return after missing Sunday's league contest through suspension.
Sor dropped to the bench at the weekend, but he will return to the starting XI on Thursday as he looks to add to the four goals that he has scored in the Europa Conference League this season.
LASK Linz possible starting lineup:
Schlager; Potzmann, Boller, Wiesinger, Renner; Michorl, Holland; Flecker, Horvath, Nakamura; Balic
Slavia Prague possible starting lineup:
Mandous; Bah, Holes, Ousou, Plavsic; Taloverov, Traore; Masopust, Schranz, Olayinka, Sor
We say: LASK Linz 2-1 Slavia Prague
LASK have fared well at home in recent games, and we think that they will win the second leg, but we do not believe the margin of victory will be big enough to prevent Slavia Prague form advancing to the quarter finals.
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a LASK Linz win with a probability of 47.63%. A win for Slavia Prague had a probability of 26.77% and a draw had a probability of 25.6%.
The most likely scoreline for a LASK Linz win was 1-0 with a probability of 11.32%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-1 (9.28%) and 2-0 (8.63%). The likeliest Slavia Prague win was 0-1 (7.99%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.17%). The actual scoreline of 4-3 was predicted with a 0.3% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole and our data analysis both correctly predicted that LASK Linz would win this match.
