After securing a surprise 2-2 draw in this fixture last Thursday, Vaduz will be looking to perform at a similar level as they host Dnipro-1 at Rheinpark Stadium on Thursday night.
Dnipro will be expecting a much-improved performance, to ensure they are still in a good position to qualify for the playoffs and be in with a chance to make the knockout stages.
Match preview
© Reuters
After picking up a point in their previous meeting, Vaduz will be full of confidence, as they have given themselves a chance to finish second in this Europa Conference League group, now sitting just two points behind their opponents Dnipro.
Their impressive performance in Europe was not enough to inspire them to their first league victory on the weekend, something they are still looking for 10 games into the season, but they did pick up another point with a 2-2 draw against FC Schaffhausen.
Both scorers from the league game, Merlin Hadzi and Dejan Djokic, have only made substitute appearances so far in the Conference League and with the lack of scoring so far in Europe, they both may become options from the start.
Manager Alessandro Mangiarratti will be hoping that his side produces another inspired performance, which included a great finish from Fabio Fehr, to give themselves a chance of qualification and put on a show for their fans, who are yet to see a victory at home this season.
Dnipro will be disappointed with how they performed in their previous fixture against Vaduz and will be looking to make up for that this Thursday, in order to further secure their second-placed spot in the group.
There were no problems for Oleksandr Kucher's side in the league as they picked up their fifth straight victory and are still yet to concede a goal in the Ukrainian league this season, as they comfortably won 3-0 against Zorya Luhansk with forward Artem Dovbyk scoring a hat-trick.
Dovbyk has now scored five goals in five games in the league, whilst also scoring three times in the Europa Conference League, which included opening the scoring in the fifth minute against Vaduz in their previous meeting.
The Ukrainian side will be hoping to transfer their defensive stability from the league to Europe, as they are yet to keep a clean sheet in the Conference League. Defender Busanello has started every game in Europe but only twice in the league, so this may be an area that Kucher could change.
A victory in this fixture for Dnipro and a victory for AZ Alkmaar in the other fixture in this group would pretty much secure at least second place for the Ukrainian side if they picked up just one more point in their last two fixtures.
- D
- L
- W
- L
- D
- D
Team News
Vaduz will have goalkeeper Benjamin Buchel back from suspension after he picked up a red card against AZ Alkmaar.
After Hadzi and Djokic scored in the previous league game, one or even both of them could come into the starting lineup to replace Manuel Sutter and Franklin Sasere, who started the last game in the Europa Conference League against Dnipro.
If Dnipro decide to stick to their lineup from their last league game, Yanis Hamache will move back to the defence with Domingo Blanco taking his place in the attack, with Busanello dropping to the bench.
The rest of the starting 11 is pretty secure, with the defensive unit settled, two defensive midfielders helping the back four, and of course, Dovbyk continuing to lead the line.
Both sides are expected to line up in the same formations they used in the last game, the 4-2-3-1 for Dnipro and the 3-4-1-2 for Vaduz.
Vaduz possible starting lineup:
Buchel; Traber, Isik, Gasser; Fehr, Gajic, Fosso, Ulrich, Cicek; Djokic, Sasere
Dnipro-1 possible starting lineup:
Walef; Hamache, Svatok, Sarapii, Adamyuk; Rubchynskyi, Babenko, Blanco, Pikhalyonok, Hutsulyak; Dovbyk
We say: Vaduz 0-2 Dnipro-1
Although Vaduz put up a much better performance than expected in the previous fixture, we would expect Dnipro to win this game, as they now know what they are coming up against and their league form shows they can improve their level of performance.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Germany
Hungary
Scotland
Switzerland
Albania
Croatia
Italy
Spain
Denmark
England
Serbia
Slovenia
Austria
France
Netherlands
Poland
Belgium
Romania
Slovakia
Ukraine
Czech Republic
Georgia
Portugal
Turkey
