Dinamo Minsk and Ludogorets Razgrad reconvene for the second leg of their Champions League first round qualifier in neutral Hungary on Wednesday night.

UEFA’s ban on Belarussian clubs playing at home means this clash will take place in Mezokovesdi, making the challenge slightly harder for the ‘home’ side to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit.

Match preview

Filip Kaloc’s 87th-minute winner was enough to give Ludogorets the upper hand heading into the return leg of this tie, as the two clubs are going head-to-head in the competition for the second season running.

The Bulgarian juggernauts were victorious in their second round meeting last season, winning 2-1 on aggregate, but taking a narrower margin into the second leg this time around makes things slightly more interesting.

Dinamo should be more match fit too, as they are currently in the middle of their league season, despite it currently taking a mid-season summer break.

Vadim Skripchenko’s men will have been happy for some time away from the pitch though, because they had lost three of their previous four games before last week’s first-leg defeat.

Dinamo’s only win in that time came against 10-man Dynamo Brest, so the title now looks beyond them, as does European football in general, so they must make the most of this opportunity to reach another league phase, as they did last season.

The Belarussian side only managed three points in six Conference League games last year, but they are up against it to even get that far this time around, because a first round defeat will mean they must win three straight Conference League qualifying ties just to stay in Europe post-summer.

Ludogorets are one of the strongest teams who have entered the first round of qualifying, considering they have not missed out on group stage/league phase football since 2015.

The 14-time successive Bulgarian champions even reached the league phase of the Europa League last season, but were eliminated after taking just four points from a possible 24.

Rui Mota’s men hardly had a post-season break though, because less than a month after completing their league season, they were back playing friendlies against strong opponents in preparation for the European qualifiers.

Ludogorets did not win any of the four friendlies against Slavia Prague, Legia Warsaw, Copenhagen or Hradec Kralove, but that has certainly got them back in the flow of things ahead of the new season.

While the visitors are favourites to go through, given their superiority on paper, and the first-leg lead, they cannot take anything for granted, as their bizarre 7-2 defeat at home to Qarabag in qualifying last year showed.

Dinamo Minsk Champions League form:

L

Dinamo Minsk form (all competitions):

W L L W L L

Ludogorets Razgrad Champions League form:

W

Team News

New Dinamo signings Dmitriy Podstrelov and Fawaz Abdullahi were both missing from their squad for the first leg last week, while fellow new boy Ruslan Chobanov was only an unused substitute.

Karen Vardanyan plundered a hat trick in the 5-0 win over Dynamo Brest last month, but was left on the bench last week, so with goals required from the home side, Skripchenko could reinstate him to the starting XI.

For Ludogorets, they will remain without Georgi Terziev, as well as new signing Joel Andersson, due to injury, and Aguibou Camara was forced with a knock early last week, but Pedro Naressi is available again after missing the back end of last season.

Kaloc arrived from Kaiserslautern for big money over the summer, and has made a huge impact immediately, scoring the late winner a week ago, and he should line up in the visiting midfield for this one.

Dinamo Minsk possible starting lineup:

Shpakovskiy; Pigas, Begunov, Gavrilovich, Ibrahim; Bakhar, Myakish, Kalinin, Malashevich; Bakic, Djimet

Ludogorets Razgrad possible starting lineup:

Padt; Son, Almeida, Kurtulus, Nedyalkov; Kaloc, Piotrowski, Nedelev, Tekpetey; Erick Marcus, Caio Vidal

We say: Dinamo Minsk 1-2 Ludogorets Razgrad

Ludogorets left it late to seal victory in the first leg, but they are favourites to advance for a reason, and it will be no surprise if they put in a more commanding performance here to see themselves through to the second round.

After reaching the Conference League last season, this was an unfortunate draw for Dinamo Minsk, and they are up against it if they want to continue in Champions League qualifying for another round at least.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.

Written by
Andrew Delaney

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