Rijeka – Midtjylland Preview – Can Rijeka find the two goals they need?
Rijeka were beaten twice in Herning last week, undone by a sharper Midtjylland side that scored once in each half. Now the tie swings back to Stadion Rujevica for the second leg of this Conference League play-off, kicking off on 27 August at 18:45 GMT, and Rijeka need two goals from somewhere just to drag this into extra time. These Rijeka vs Midtjylland betting tips start from that basic split: the aggregate score says Midtjylland are in control, but a single leg in front of a packed, vocal Rujevica crowd is a very different proposition. Nobody should call this one a foregone conclusion.
The stakes sharpen that point further. This is a straight knockout at this stage of the competition: whoever wins the tie moves into the league phase proper, and whoever loses is finished in Europe for the season. There’s no soft landing into a lower competition, so both benches know exactly what one mistake costs tonight.
Rijeka – Midtjylland Betting Tips
Betting Tip: Rijeka to win
Forget the aggregate scoreline for a moment and just look at this leg in isolation: Rijeka have a fully fit squad, home advantage, and a Midtjylland back line missing three defensive options plus a forward. Backs against the wall at Rujevica tends to be when Kek’s side play their best football, and I like them to produce the committed, front-footed performance that gets them over the line on the night, whatever it ends up meaning for the tie as a whole.
Betting Tip: Over 2.5 goals
Rijeka cannot sit off and hope; they have to commit numbers forward from kickoff, and that tends to open games up at both ends. Midtjylland are already down key defensive personnel and will be defending deep in a hostile, unfamiliar ground, which is fertile territory for goals. It’s a match where you back the shape of the game rather than one result, and it’s worth checking the latest match odds before deciding how to stake it.
Betting Tip: Both teams to score
Midtjylland scored twice away from home already in this tie, and Franculino Djú remains their most dangerous outlet in behind a stretched defence, so the idea they arrive at Rujevica and go scoreless feels unlikely. Rijeka, pushing hard for the goals they need, should get their own reward too. Both teams to score covers the version of this game where it turns into the open, end-to-end night this fixture looks set up for.
A first leg that flattered Midtjylland’s control
Cho Gue-Sung and Sofus Johannesen were the scorers in Herning, one early and one just after the restart, and for long spells Midtjylland made the gap between the two clubs look wider than it probably is. Rijeka were not blown away, though, and a home side that has made a habit of testing bigger names in Europe will fancy putting Midtjylland under real pressure this time. For the fuller picture of how that first leg actually played out, our recap of that first-leg win covers the key moments.
Team news: a shorthanded Midtjylland, a full-strength Rijeka
Mike Tullberg arrives without a settled defensive unit. Ousmane Diao, Victor Bak and Mikel Gogorza are all sidelined, and forward Júnior Brumado is out with a knee injury, thinning out a squad that already has to protect a two-goal cushion away from home. Matjaž Kek, by contrast, has no fresh fitness worries to report, which is exactly the kind of imbalance a home crowd feeds off in a game this must-win. Rijeka got here by getting through their own qualifying tie against Ilves in the previous round, and Midtjylland needed the same nerve to get past Bohemians before arriving at this stage.
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