Slavia Prague will be looking for a victory in this final game of Europa Conference League Group G against Sivasspor at Fortuna Arena on Thursday evening, to give themselves the best chance of qualifying for the knockout stages.
A win for top-of-the-group Sivasspor secures their place in the knockout stages of the Conference League, avoiding a playoff round against third-placed Europa League teams.
Match preview
Despite their recent impressive form, a win in this fixture for Slavia Prague may not be enough to progress in this competition due to tiebreakers.
If CFR Cluj lose their game against KF Ballkani however, a victory for Jindrich Trpisovsky's side would see them top the group and progress straight to the knockout stages.
Slavia Prague have won their last five competitive games, which included a cup win, a Conference League victory and three league games, with the most recent being a 4-1 away triumph against Bohemians 1905.
At home, Slavia Prague have only lost one game this season, when they were beaten by Cluj in this competition. In the league, they have won every home game, so they will be confident that they can pick up the result they need in this match with the support of their fans.
Nigerian forward Peter Olayinka scored two goals on Sunday in the league, bringing his tally of goals for the season to six, and he will be looking forward to facing Sivasspor again, having found the net four minutes into the last meeting between the two sides.
With their fate not in their hands, Slavia Prague will just need to make sure they get the job done at home to Sivasspor and hope the other result in their group goes in their favour.
After an impressive win against Cluj in the last Europa Conference League matchday, Sivasspor have put themselves in a strong position to finish first in this group.
If they did lose this fixture, however, and if Cluj did not win against Ballkani, they would finish second to Slavia Prague due to the head-to-head tiebreaker.
Their form in the Turkish Super Lig has not been the best recently, a loss against Antalyaspor on Monday night being their most recent failure, which leaves Riza Calimbay's side sitting 15th in the table with just 10 points from 12 games. The Conference League has given Sivasspor a chance to find some form and put in some good performances.
Sivasspor will be hoping that Mustapha Yatabare's two goals in the game against Cluj can be the confidence boost he needed to kickstart his season; before that brace, he had only scored twice in the season so far.
Victory in this fixture will secure their first-ever appearance in the knockout stages of a European competition, after their previous group-stage experience in the Europa League in the 2020-21 season saw them finish third in their group.
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Team News
Yira Sor started the last Europa Conference League game for Slavia Prague upfront but Jindrich Trpisovsky will likely recall Stanislav Tecl to the starting 11 to replace him.
They used the 4-3-1-2 in the game against KF Ballkani too, which seemed to be an effective formation and could well be used again in this fixture, with scorer from the last fixture Ondrej Lingr sitting behind the two strikers.
Full-back Ugur Ciftci was subbed off early in the last Europa Conference League game for Sivasspor and did not feature in their last league game on Monday, so is a doubt for this match.
Murat Paluli switched sides and played on the left in their last league game, with Erdogan Yesilyurt playing in the other full-back position.
The rest of the side should remain unchanged for this fixture, lining up in a 4-2-3-1 formation, with Yatabare leading the line.
Slavia Prague possible starting lineup:
Kolar; Jurasek, Kacharaba, Ousou, Masopust; Dorley, Tiehi, Doudera, Lingr; Olayinka, Tecl
Sivasspor possible starting lineup:
Vural; Paluli, Osmanpasa, Goutas, Yesilyurt; Keita, Arslan, Gradel, Saba, N'Jie; Yatabare
We say: Slavia Prague 2-2 Sivasspor
Form suggests that Slavia Prague come into this game as favourites and will secure the victory. However, Sivasspor have shown how capable they are in the Conference League so we would expect this to be a draw.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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