Slovan Liberec welcome Red Star Belgrade to the Stadion U Nisy on Thursday night, as they look to end their Europa League campaign on a high after missing out on qualification for the knockout stages.
Red Star were able to secure their progression to the next round with a 0-0 draw at home to group leaders Hoffenheim, while Liberec secured their second win of the campaign with a 2-1 win over Gent.
Match preview
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Pavel Hoftych's men come into this fixture with no chance of progressing to the next stage of the competition but will be hoping to cut the deficit between them and Thursday night's opposition nonetheless.
Liberec have suffered three losses in the group stages, bookended by two wins, which will have been in vain given the fact that they lie four points adrift of qualification and Red Star, who defeated them 5-1 in the return fixture.
That hefty defeat to Red Star was the first time the two sides have met since Liberec overcame the Serbian side twice in the 2007 competition, and has contributed to the group-high 13 goals conceded so far this campaign.
Recent form has not been kind to Liberec, having lost seven of their last 10 Europa League home matches, going down 2-0 to Hoffenheim in their last home game.
Thanks to a goalless draw with Hoffenheim, Red Star booked their place in the Europa League knockout stages, and though the job is already done, they will still want to collect three more points to take momentum into the next stage.
Red Star's solid form in the tournament can be largely put down to their strong defensive performances, having only conceded four goals so far this campaign.
In fact, Red Star have kept a clean sheet in seven of their 13 Europa League games, and among teams who have played at least 13 games in the competition since 2009, only Real Betis have a higher ratio.
History suggests Red Star will come through victorious in this matchup, having won their last four matches against Czech opposition, the most recent being a 1-0 win over Sparta Prague in August 2017.
If they do indeed win on Thursday, it will be the first time they have won consecutive away games in a major European competition since they won four in a row in 1991, the year they lifted the European Cup.
Slovan Liberec Europa League form: WLLLW
Slovan Liberec form (all competitions): LWLLWD
Red Star Belgrade Europa League form: LWWWD
Red Star Belgrade form (all competitions): WWWWDW
Team News
Dejan Stankovic rested several first-team regulars in a 1-0 win over Zlatibor Cajetina at the weekend, but he should field a strong side against Liberec.
Aleksandar Katai remains in recovery, but full-back Milan Rodic should recover in time to face Liberec.
Hoftych will again be without long-term absentee, Jhon Mosquera.
Aside from Mosquera, the Liberec manager has no fresh injury concerns coming into the final group stage match.
Slovan Liberec possible starting lineup:
Nguyen; Koscelnik, Kacharaba, Jugas, Chalus, Mikula; Pesek, Sadilek, Mara, Mosquera; Yusuf
Red Star Belgrade possible starting lineup:
Borjan; Gajic, Pankov, Milunovic, Degenek, Vukanovic; Nikolic, Petrovic, Ivanic; Falcinelli, Ben
We say: Slovan Liberec 1-1 Red Star Belgrade
Both sides will be looking to end the group stages on a high, but with one eye on upcoming domestic fixtures, there could be a lack of urgency and that is why we are predicting that the spoils will be shared on this occasion.
Top betting 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 Red Star Belgrade win with a probability of 54.2%. A draw had a probability of 24.4% and a win for Slovan Liberec had a probability of 21.42%.
The most likely scoreline for a Red Star Belgrade win was 0-1 with a probability of 12.24%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 0-2 (10.17%) and 1-2 (9.63%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.58%), while for a Slovan Liberec win it was 1-0 (6.97%). The actual scoreline of 0-0 was predicted with a 7.4% likelihood.
