Preview: Vitebsk vs Universitatea Craiova - prediction, team news, lineups

Vitebsk will welcome Universitatea Craiova for the first leg of their first qualifying round contest in the Champions League on Wednesday night.

Hosts Vitebsk won the Belarusian Premier League for the first time in their history in 2025, while Universitatea Craiova won the Romanian top division for the fifth time in 2025-26.

Match preview

Vitebsk were promoted from Belarus' second tier in 2024 and then incredibly won the title in 2025, finishing at the top of the pile for the first time in history.

As a result, this is the team's debut appearance in European competition, and it would be one of the biggest stories in Champions League history if they could find a way to secure a spot in the league phase of the tournament, but that is a long way off.

Magomed Adiyev's side are actually 14 games into their current domestic campaign, with a total of 31 points leaving them in second, two points behind leaders Dinamo Minsk.

Vitebsk will enter this match off the back of successive wins over Naftan and Slavia Mozyr, while they have only lost once in the league during the current campaign.

The Belarusian outfit will be bidding to secure a positive result on Wednesday evening ahead of the second leg between the two sides in Romania next week.

Universitatea Craiova won Romania's top flight for the fifth time in 2025-26, and it actually proved to be their first success in the league since 1990-91.

The White-Blues have previous when it comes to European football, having incredibly made the quarter-finals of the European Cup in 1981-82, while they were semi-finalists in the UEFA Cup in 1982-83.

Filipe Coelho's team played two friendlies towards the end of June, drawing 1-1 with Sabah Baku before recording a 4-3 victory over Polissya Zhytomyr last time out.

Universitatea Craiova are in Romanian Super Cup action against Universitatea Craiova on July 12 before beginning their new league season three days after the second leg of this Champions League first qualifying round contest.

Vitebsk form (all competitions):

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Universitatea Craiova friendly form:

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Team News

Vitebsk will be without the services of Aleksey Nosko on Wednesday through injury, but the home side are otherwise in strong shape for the contest.

Bassekou Diabate has been in strong form this season, scoring eight times in 18 appearances, and there will again be a spot in the final third of the field for the 26-year-old.

Meanwhile, there should also be a start for Nikita Glushkov, who has come up with three goals in his opening 18 appearances of the current season.

As for Universitatea Craiova, Pablo Isenko and Alexandru Iamandache have been ruled out of the match due to injury problems.

The visitors have made five new signings this summer, including goalkeeper Razvan Sava, and there should be a spot between the sticks for the 24-year-old on Wednesday.

Ronaldo Webster and Heri Tavares will also be among those hoping to make their debuts for the Romanian outfit at some stage of the contest.

Vitebsk possible starting lineup:

Pavlyuchenko; Skibskiy, Volkov, Gomanov, Moskalenchik; Galyata, Abdullahi, Gromyko; Kontsevoy, Diabate, Glushkov

Universitatea Craiova possible starting lineup:

Sava; Gaspar, Badelj, Rus, Bancu; Baluta, Cretu, Matei; Mora, Al-Hamlawi, Basceanu

We say: Vitebsk 1-1 Universitatea Craiova

We are expecting Wednesday's match to be a close contest between two teams that will feel confident heading into the two-legged affair - it would not be a surprise to see a narrow win either way, but we have just settled on a low-scoring draw.