Malmo welcome Sparta Prague to Eleda Stadium for the first leg of their Champions League playoff tie on Tuesday night.
The winners of this two-legged tie will qualify for the newly-expanded 36-team Champions League, while the losers will drop down into the Europa League.
Match preview
After missing out on qualifying for European competition altogether last season, Malmo are vying to advance to the Champions League proper for the fourth time in their history and for the first time since competing in the 2021-22 group stage.
The reigning Swedish Allsvenskan champions, who celebrated winning a record-extending 23rd title last season, have scraped into the Champions League playoff round after being made to work for second and third qualifying round victories over two legs against KI Klaksvik and PAOK respectively.
After beating Faroese-based outfit KI 6-4 on aggregate in the second round, Malmo required extra time in the second leg of their thrilling third-round qualifier with Greek side PAOK and eventually won the contest 6-5 on aggregate - a dramatic 96th-minute equaliser from Nils Zatterstrom in normal time was followed by Anders Christiansen's decisive strike nine minutes into extra time.
Henrik Rydstrom's side have since boosted their hopes of retaining their Swedish top-flight crown, as they came from behind to beat Norrkoping 2-1 on home soil to maintain their nine-point lead at the summit with 11 games remaining.
Malmo will now shift their attention back to the Champions League and welcome a Sparta Prague side to Eleda Stadium, where they have won 10 of their last 13 matches in all competitions within 90 minutes.
Sparta Prague also head into Wednesday's contest in buoyant mood, as they have kick-started the season with an impressive nine-game unbeaten run in all competitions, winning eight times and scoring 22 goals.
Last season's Czech First League champions secured a 6-2 aggregate victory over Shamrock Rovers in the Champions League second qualifying round at the end of last month, before edging past FCSB 4-3 on aggregate in the third round, beating the Romanian outfit 3-2 away from home in the second leg last week.
After racing into a three-goal lead thanks to strikes from Veljko Birmancevic (2) and Lukas Haraslin, Sparta Prague were given an almighty scare when FCSB pulled two goals back in the second half to set up a nervy finish. However, the Czech outfit held on for the victory to set up their playoff tie with Malmo.
Lars Friis's side have since continued their perfect start on the domestic front, beating Jablonec 2-1 away from home on Saturday to record their fifth win from their opening five Czech top-flight matches and remain top of the table, two points ahead of Viktoria Plzen in second.
Sparta Prague are now bidding to qualify for the main stage of the Champions League for the ninth time in their history and for the first time since competing in the 2005-06 group stage. They competed in last season's Europa League, but were eliminated 11-2 on aggregate by Liverpool in the last 16.
Team News
Malmo will be without Niklas Moisander (knee), Anton Tinnerholm (groin) and Stefano Vecchia (back) as they all continue to recover from injury.
Sebastian Nanasi, who scored twice in the second-leg win over PAOK last week, recovered from illness to make an appearance off the bench against Norrkoping last time out, and the winger is in contention to start against Sparta Prague.
Isaac Kiese Thelin and Erik Botheim have scored 28 goals between them in the 2024 campaign and will both be pushing to start in attack on Wednesday.
As for Sparta Prague, summer signing Imanol Garcia de Albeniz has missed the last two games with an unspecified injury and is not expected to recover in time to face Malmo, so either Matej Rynes or Tomas Wiesner are set to start at left wing-back.
In-form attacker Veljko Birmancevic has contributed to six goals (four goals, two assists) in his last five appearances in all competitions and he will likely be recalled to the first XI to start alongside Lukas Haraslin and Victor Olatunji in the front three.
Malmo possible starting lineup:
Dahlin; Larsen, Jansson, Zatterstrom, Busanello; Rieks, Pena, Johnsen, Nanasi; Botheim, Thelin
Sparta Prague possible starting lineup:
Vindahl; Vitik, Sorensen, Zeleny; Preciado, Laci, Kairinen, Rynes; Birmancevic, Olatunji, Haraslin
We say: Malmo 1-2 Sparta Prague
Both teams will fancy their chances of claiming a positive result from Wednesday's contest, but taking into account Sparta Prague's impressive run of form at the start of the new campaign, we can see the Czech-based outfit coming away from Sweden with a slender first-leg victory.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
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