Rapid Wien vs Slavia Praha

Rapid Wien and Sparta Praha will trade tackles at the Allianz Stadion in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League qualifying quarter-final tie.

The hosts have enjoyed a notable upturn in form ahead of the kick-off, going from three consecutive competitive defeats to back-to-back victories via an aggregate scoreline of 9-0. Before putting together successive triumphs over LASK and Austrian lower-league side Wiener Viktoria, Rapid had failed to win back-to-back competitive home games four times in a row (W1, D1, L2). Curiously, three of those matches saw one or both teams fail to get on the scoresheet, with the winning/losing margin on two occasions yielding 3+ goals. Despite Rapid’s form wobble, action-packed football has highlighted their recent competitive fixtures, with each of their last three outings in all competitions seeing one side net over 2.5 goals. Getting off the mark first could be essential here, considering that seven of Rapid’s previous eight home games won/lost saw the victor register a shutout.

On the other hand, the visitors have failed to win back-to-back warm-up matches (D1, L1), scoring and conceding 2+ goals on each occasion, after racking up a five-game winning streak in the off-season beforehand. In competitive contests alone, Sparta have pieced together five consecutive triumphs following an embarrassing 3-0 loss to arch-rivals Slavia Praha in the domestic cup final back in early May. Notably, free-scoring Sparta netted over 1.5 goals in all of those five victories, mustering up an intimidating average of 3.8 goals per game. Topically, Pavel Vrba’s men have scored 2+ goals in each of their last six road trips in a row, friendlies included. Delivering action from the get-go, the Czech heavyweights have opened the scoring within ten minutes of play in three of their previous four competitive away matches.

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