LASK Linz will travel to the Czech Republic for the first leg of their Europa Conference League last-16 tie against Slavia Prague on Thursday.
The hosts enter the contest off the back of six consecutive victories in all competitions, while the visitors have won just once in their last five competitive outings.
Match preview
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Slavia Prague had to negotiate a playoff tie after eight points from their six group-stage games ensured that they would finish in second place behind Feyenoord.
A couple of entertaining games against Fenerbahce saw Slavia Prague progress to the last 16 after ousting the Turkish side with a 6-4 aggregate victory.
Those two victories over Fenerbahce have helped Slavia Prague amass six successive wins across all competitions, and a derby victory over rivals Sparta Prague at the weekend guaranteed that Jindrich Trpisovsky's side would carry momentum into Thursday's fixture.
In those six matches, the reigning Czech First League champions have scored an impressive 15 goals, demonstrating their clinical nature in the final third.
Thursday's hosts will only be encouraged by their home form in the competition so far, with Slavia Prague's Europa Conference League home matches resulting in three victories and one draw.
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Meanwhile, LASK Linz progressed straight to the round of 16 after finishing top of their Europa Conference League group in dominant fashion.
Their six group games yielded five victories and one draw, with LASK netting 12 goals in those contests, while they only conceded one goal in the entirety of the group phase.
However, their impressive European form has failed to translate into their domestic fixtures, with LASK experiencing a poor season in the Austrian Bundesliga.
In fact, they will take part in the relegation group in the final part of the campaign, while they also departed the Austrian Cup at the quarter-final stage after losing to Red Bull Salzburg.
A disappointing domestic season means that Andreas Wieland's side will need to go all the way in the Europa Conference League if they are to compete in European competition next season.
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Team News
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The hosts are without Lukas Provod and Jan Boril due to injury issues, while Oscar Dorley and Taras Kacharaba are suspended for the first leg.
Following an important victory over local rivals Sparta Prague in their most recent outing, Slavia Prague could name an unchanged lineup for Thursday's contest.
Yira Sor netted a brace in the second leg against Fenerbahce, and he will be looking to play a key role for his side when he starts upfront on Thursday.
As for the visitors, Petar Filipovic is still unavailable having not featured for LASK since October.
Rene Renner could return to the starting lineup after missing the league defeat to Wolfsberger due to suspension.
If LASK are to progress to the quarter finals then Sascha Horvath will be crucial, having scored 13 goals in all competitions this season.
Slavia Prague possible starting lineup:
Kolar; Bah, Ousou, Hovorka, Jurasek; Traore, Holes; Lingr, Schranz, Olayinka; Sor
LASK Linz possible starting lineup:
Schlager; Potzmann, Boller, Wiesinger, Renner; Michorl, Hong; Gruber, Horvath, Goiginger; Schmidt
We say: Slavia Prague 1-1 LASK Linz
With Slavia Prague unbeaten at home in the Europa Conference League and LASK yet to lose in the competition, we think that both sides could cancel each other out with neither team wanting to lose ground in the tie.
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 Slavia Prague win with a probability of 46.78%. A win for LASK Linz had a probability of 29.86% and a draw had a probability of 23.4%.
The most likely scoreline for a Slavia Prague win was 2-1 with a probability of 9.3%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-0 (7.85%) and 2-0 (6.86%). The likeliest LASK Linz win was 1-2 (7.21%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (10.63%). The actual scoreline of 4-1 was predicted with a 2.4% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Slavia Prague would win this match.
