• Competition: Europa League Qualifiers, 3rd Round, 1st Leg
• Date: Thursday, 8th August, 2024
• Kickoff: 19:00 UK / 20:00 CEST
• Venue: Stadion HNK Rijeka (Rijeka)

On Thursday evening, vice-champions from Croatia and Sweden, Rijeka and Elfsborg, will face off in the third round of the Europa League Qualifiers. The first leg will take place at Stadion HNK Rijeka in Rijeka.

In over a decade, Rijeka have been among the best three or four teams in Croatia, even winning one title in the 2016/17 season. Last year, they were once in a position to secure the title, their second ever, but eventually lost it after a terrible finish of the season. This season, Rijeka's European campaign started pretty poorly as they barely eliminated Hunedoara - a team from the Romanian second league that was lucky to win the Cup. Still, Rijeka won only by 1:0 on aggregate. Against Elfsborg, the bookies see Rijeka as a slight favorite, offering odds around 1.7-1.8.

Similarly to Rijeka, Elfsborg also lost the title last year due to a terrible end of the season. In contrast to the last season, this one started terribly for the team from Bor?s. However, as the season progresses, they are only looking better and are now in excellent form, having won seven of the last eight games. Unlike Rijeka, Elfsborg started its European journey from the first round, beating Paphos from Cyprus and then Sheriff Tiraspol from Moldavia.

Rijeka vs Elfsborg pick: Elfsborg to win or draw

Rijeka were terrible in the previous qualifying round, winning only 1:0 against Hunedoara, a team that is probably among the worst ones in the Qualifiers. If we count the win against Lokomotiva Zagreb in the first round of the domestic league, Rijeka have a really good score this season. But as we said, their performance in the EL Qualifiers was far from impressive. Also, an additional problem for Rijeka might be the fact that their season just started, while Elfsborg is in full steam since their season began about six months ago (if we include the Svenska Cup).

Elfsborg are in excellent form, having won seven of the last eight games. Their only loss was 2:1 against Djurgarden, in a match they definitly deserved at least one point.

When it comes to Europe, Elfsborg were impressive, especially in the previous round against Sheriff Tiraspol. They beat the Moldavian team 1:0 away from home and 2:0 at home, and we expect a good performance against Rijeka as well.