Our prediction for this Europa League match:
Sammy Ofer Stadium will host Thursday’s Europa League game between Maccabi Haifa and Panathinaikos, the two teams who meet for the first time in the second most popular European competitions. Maccabi Haifa aim to recover from a 3-0 loss to Rennes in their opener and we are positive that they will stick to their attacking style of play against PAO. Both Haziza and Menahem miss out with injuries for the home side.
Panathinaikos, on the other hand, kicked off their Europa League campaign in style, with the team beating La Liga side Villarreal 2-0 in Athens. The Greens, though, are not considered good travellers and given their under-par performance in a 2-2 draw with PAOK at the weekend, we believe that there is a big value in betting on draw. The good news for the visiting team is that defender Juankar is back from suspension.
Highlighted Player (Andraz Sporar):
Born in Ljubljana, Slovenia on February 27, 1994, Andraz Sporar is a striker who plays for Slovakian side Slovan Bratislava. Sporar spent his youth career at the likes of Olimpija, MNK Ljubljana and Interblock and he continued playing for the last mentioned club at senior level.
After scoring 10 goals in 21 appearances for the club, the Slovenian attacker moved to his hometown club Olimpija Ljubljana where he earned the captaincy. Andraz Sporar was scoring goals for fun in the Slovenian top flight, netting 46 goals in 95 appearances in the league, but he then decided to take a step forward in his career.
In the 2015/2016 season he moved to Swiss outfit Basel, but he made no more than 19 appearances in the league for the RotBlau. During his spell with Basel Sporar played for Arminia Bielefeld on loan as well and in the winter of 2018 he joined Slovan Bratislava. Speaking of his international career, he made his debut with Slovenia in November 2016 against Malta.