Partizan and Feyenoord will begin their battle for a place in the Europa Conference League quarter-finals on Thursday, when they square off in Belgrade.
The visitors cruised through the group stage, while their Serbian counterparts had to navigate their way through a playoff tie to reach the round of 16.
Match preview
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After finishing second in the Serbian top flight last season, Partizan had to battle through three rounds of qualifying for the Europa Conference League, finally reaching the group stage after two-legged wins over DAC Dunajska Streda, Sochi and Santa Clara.
Aleksandar Stanojevic's side then made the perfect start to the group, defeating Anorthosis and Flora in their first two games, but, after earning just two points from the last four matches, they dropped to a second-placed finish and were forced to battle in the playoffs for a spot in the round of 16.
They met a dangerous Sparta Prague side and progressed somewhat against the odds thanks to 1-0 and 2-1 wins in the away and home legs respectively, as Queensy Menig scored in the first meeting and Ricardo Gomes confirmed the triumph with a brace in Serbia.
The Black-Whites come into the round of 16 having bounced back from a harmful defeat to title rivals Red Star Belgrade with consecutive victories over Mladost Lucani and Spartak Subotica to remain two points clear at the summit of the domestic top flight.
Stanojevic's men will now aim to make it three wins in a row, both in the Conference League and in all competitions, with home advantage before they head to the Netherlands next week.
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Feyenoord arrive looking to extend their continental run following a dominant showing in the group stage, after they saw off Drita, Luzern and Elfsborg in qualification.
In their six group stage games, Arne Slot's side picked up 14 points courtesy of four victories and draws with Maccabi Haifa and Slavia Prague, netting 11 goals and comfortably finishing at the top as a result.
That saw De Stadionclub earn automatic progression to the round of 16, and they find themselves looking to bounce back to winning ways after consecutive disappointing results in the Eredivisie, firstly falling to a defeat to fourth-placed AZ Alkmaar before drawing 1-1 with Groningen, seeing their lead over the former cut to just one point.
Now travelling to a notoriously tough away ground, Slot's men will look to pick up a positive result to boost their chances of reaching the quarter-finals.
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Team News
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Partizan will have to deal with the major loss of striker Ricardo Gomes, who netted a brace in the second leg of their playoff win, after he was sent off in the second half of that game.
The Cape Verde international has netted 27 goals in all competitions this season, and more of the attacking responsibility will fall on winger Queensy Menig in his absence.
At the other end of the pitch, Igor Vujacic and Sinisa Sanicanin have consistently played alongside one another at centre-back, and they should again partner up at the heart of a back four.
Feyenoord have suspension issues of their own to deal with, as midfielder Guus Til and winger Patrik Walemark are both ruled out for Thursday's first leg.
Forward Cyriel Dessers returned from an injury worry to score off the bench at the weekend, and he will hope to be given the nod in Serbia.
Luis Sinisterra and Alireza Jahanbakhsh offer further threat going forward, and they could again be deployed on the flanks.
Partizan possible starting lineup:
Popovic; Miletic, Vujacic, Sanicanin, Urosevic; Jojic, Zdjelar; Markovic, Natcho, Menig; Terzic
Feyenoord possible starting lineup:
Bijlow; Pedersen, Trauner, Senesi, Malacia; Kokcu, Aursnes; Jahanbakhsh, Sinisterra; Dessers, Linssen
We say: Partizan 1-1 Feyenoord
Feyenoord come in as narrow favourites, but, away from home, they are unlikely to come out all guns blazing.
Given the stakes of a first leg, we see a cagey encounter finishing level before next week's game in the Netherlands.
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 Feyenoord win with a probability of 49.34%. A draw had a probability of 25.5% and a win for Partizan had a probability of 25.17%.
The most likely scoreline for a Feyenoord win was 0-1 with a probability of 11.78%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.37%) and 0-2 (9.12%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (12.11%), while for a Partizan win it was 1-0 (7.83%). The actual scoreline of 2-5 was predicted with a 0.3% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Feyenoord would win this match.
