Our prediction for this Europa Conference League match:
Both Slovacko and Koln will look to keep their Europa League knockout stages hopes alive when they face Koln at Mestsky stadion Miroslava Valenty on Thursday. Slovacko did well to upset Nice in their last group game, meaning that they are brimming with confidence ahead of the visit of Koln. Petr Reinberk, who scored as a substitute in the Allianz Riviera clash, is widely expected to return to the starting XI, while there are no fresh injury worries in the home team.
The Billy Goats, on the other hand, failed to impress in back-to-back defeats to Partizan, with the team suffering a heavy 5-0 loss to Mainz at the weekend. Given Slovacko’s display in the triumph over Nice, we predict that the visitors will return home empty-handed. All Andersson, Chabot, Lemperle, Limnios, Ljubicic, Olesen, and Thielmann should miss out with injuries for the visiting side.
Highlighted Player (Jonas Hector):
Jonas Hector is a product of Koln’s youth school. The left back was born on 27 May, 1990 in Saarbrucken and he began his youth career at SV Auersmacher. In 2010 he joined FC Koln and he made 63 league appearances for the reserve team between 2010 and 2013. Ever since he made his debut for the senior team on 27 August, 2012 he has been playing regularly for the Billy Goats and he certainly helped the team return to Bundesliga at the end of the 2013/2014 campaign.
Jonas Hector made his Germany debut on 14 November, 2014 in a 4-0 win over Gibraltar. The left-footed defender scored his first goal for the German national team on 29 March, 2016 in a 4-1 victory over Italy in Munich.
Hector represented his homeland at the 2016 European Championship finals in France and he scored the winner from the penalty spot in the quarter-final against Italy. Hector is capable of playing as a midfielder as well.
Highlighted Team (Koln):
FC Koln is a German football club from Koln and is currently active in the Bundesliga. The club was founded on 13th of February in 1948 after a fusion between Koner BC01 and SpVgg Sulz07. Like many German football clubs FC Koln is not only a football club but has different other sports departments as well.
FC Koln currently hosts it’s home games in the Rhein Energie Stadium which holds a capacity of almost 51 000 spectators and was recently renovated in 2004.The main club colours are white and red. The most known nickname for FC Koln is Die Geißböcke which literally means the Goats. The biggest rivals of FC Koln are Bayer Leverkusen, Borussia Monchengladbach and Fortuna Dusseldorf. The club from Koln holds a narrow relationship with St Pauli, Liverpool and Paris Saint Germain.
FC Koln is one of the most successful clubs in Germany winning the Bundesliga title 3 times and the DFB Pokal 3 times. Notable players that played for FC Koln are Schuster, Korput, Olsen, Weber and Muller.