NS Mura welcome Sturm Graz to the Mesti Stadion Fazanerija on Thursday for the first leg of their Europa League qualifying encounter.
With little margin for error, both teams will be looking to gain the upper hand in the tie ahead of next week's return leg in Styria.
Match preview
After an opening-day league defeat to Salzburg, Sturm Graz have responded with three victories on the bounce to get their season back on track.
Christian Ilzer's men eased past LASK in a 3-1 win at the Raiffeisen Arena on Sunday to move into second spot on the log and are now just three points behind the only team to have beaten them this term.
Die Schwoazn now seek to take their domestic form into Europe as they go in search of their first continental participation since a group-stage exit in the Europa League nine years ago.
The Austrian outfit have scored 20 times in their five matches in all competitions so far but have only managed to keep a clean sheet in one of them, which was against lower-league opposition ATSV Stadl-Paura.
Two years on from their second-round qualifying exit to Haugesund, Thursday's visitors will be keen to show how far they have come since then.
NS Mura were involved in an entertaining 2-2 stalemate versus Kalcer Radomlje on Sunday which had to be abandoned due to weather issues.
Ante Simundza's men responded to going behind twice in the opening 45 minutes, before missing a second-half penalty just before the contest got interrupted.
The Black and Whites saw off the threat of Lithuanian side FK Zalgiris in the last round of the Europa League qualifiers courtesy of a 1-0 victory in the second leg on August 12 following a 0-0 stalemate seven days earlier.
Thursday's hosts are now faced with the final hurdle in their quest to secure European football for the first time since they gained promotion to the Slovenian top flight in 2018.
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Team News
Sturm Graz's Manprit Sarkaria came off the bench to net twice in a 30-minute cameo last time out, and he could be rewarded with a starting spot.
Alongside Kelvin Yeboah, who has scored in three of his last four outings, the duo have scored a combined 11 goals this term and come into the game in fine form.
Ziga Kous was Mura's hero in the last qualifying round where he bagged the winner, and he will be looking to come up trumps for the hosts once again.
Mitja Lotric will lead the line in search of his first continental goal since his move from FC Wurzburger Kickers having registered in each of his last two domestic games.
NS Mura possible starting lineup:
Obradovic; Gorenc, Marusko, Karnicnik; Kous, Kozar, Bobicanec, Horvat, Sturm; Cipot, Lotric
Sturm Graz possible starting lineup:
Siebenhandl; Wuthrich, Dante, Affengruber, Gazibegovic; Kuen, Stankovic, Hierlander; Kiteishvili, Yeboah, Sarkaria
We say: NS Mura 1-2 Sturm Graz
Sturm Graz are the more in-form side coming into the contest, and they will want to take advantage of their current momentum. We are backing them to put themselves in the driving seat going into the return leg with a narrow away victory in this one.
Top tip
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 Sturm Graz win with a probability of 48.54%. A win for NS Mura had a probability of 27.45% and a draw had a probability of 24%.
The most likely scoreline for a Sturm Graz win was 1-2 with a probability of 9.5%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-1 (9.3%) and 0-2 (7.85%). The likeliest NS Mura win was 2-1 (6.82%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.26%). The actual scoreline of 1-3 was predicted with a 5.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Sturm Graz would win this match.
