Randers take on Galatasaray at Cepheus Park Randers on Thursday evening in the first league of the sides' Europa League playoff round tie.
The hosts enter at this stage thanks to domestic success last season, while Galatasaray are relying on Europe's secondary competition following elimination from the Champions League.
Match preview
© Reuters
After winning the Danish Cup last season, Randers have made a positive start to the 2021-22 Danish Superliga campaign with four wins and a draw in their first five matches.
The Horses have won three league games on the trot, most recently overcoming Viborg FF last Friday to move top of the division, a point better off than FC Midtjylland.
This is just the sixth time Randers have been involved in European competition, though never have they made it to the group stage.
They most recently went down 1-0 on aggregate to Elfsborg in the second qualifying round of this competition in 2015-16, so they do not exactly boast European pedigree.
Galatasaray will therefore enter this game as favourites to advance to the Europa League proper, but the Turkish giants will be disappointed not to be in the Champions League.
Fatih Terim's men were thrashed 7-2 by PSV Eindhoven in the preliminary stages, seeing them drop into the Europa League qualifying rounds.
A 1-1 draw at home to St Johnstone in the last round had Galatasaray facing the possibility of Europa Conference League football, but they recovered to win the reverse leg 4-2.
The Yellow-Reds followed that up with a 2-0 win at Giresunspor at the weekend in their opening game of the new Super Lig season.
Challenging for domestic honours is a must for Terim this campaign, but a European run will also be on the cards, so the Turkish side cannot afford to slip up on Thursday night.
- W
- D
- W
- W
- W
- D
- W
- L
- L
- D
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Galatasaray defender Marcao was shown a straight red card for fighting with teammate Kerem Akturkoglu at the weekend, but his domestic ban will not carry across into Europe.
Omar Elabdellaoui has been nursing an injury and is not likely to be involved on Thursday, meanwhile, with Terim expected to stick to a similar XI to the one used last week.
After making their league debuts last weekend, Patrick van Aanholt and Berkan Kutlu could get the nod once again here, while Aytac Kara is another newcomer pushing for inclusion.
As for the hosts, Thomas Thomasberg has no fresh injury or suspension concerns to worry about ahead of this huge European tie.
Nicolai Brock-Madsen is pushing for a recall after being named among the subs last time out, but Marvin Egho has started all five league games this term and should get the nod here.
Randers possible starting lineup:
Carlgren; Kallesoe, Piesinger, Marxen, Kopplin; Klysner, Johnsen, Hammershoy-Mistrati, Lauenborg, Tibbling; Egho
Galatasaray possible starting lineup:
Muslera; Yedlin, Luyindama, Marcao, Van Aanholt; Akturkoglu, Kutlu, Antalyali, Kara, Babel; Mohamed
We say: Randers 0-2 Galatasaray
If Randers are to pull off a big upset and reach the Europa League group stage, they will surely have to pick up a positive result in this first leg on home soil.
The Horses have made a strong start to their domestic campaign, but we can still see Galatasaray's quality shining through in Denmark on Thursday evening.
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 Galatasaray win with a probability of 41.37%. A win for Randers had a probability of 37.17% and a draw had a probability of 21.5%.
The most likely scoreline for a Galatasaray win was 1-2 with a probability of 7.98%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-3 (5.11%) and 2-3 (4.65%). The likeliest Randers win was 2-1 (7.54%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (8.3%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 8.3% likelihood.
