Ludogorets vs PSG
UEFA Champions League – Group A
Date: Wednesday, 28th September, 2016,
Kick-Off: 19:45 UK,
Venue: Stadion Vasil Levski (Sofia).
Ludogorets are enjoying a solid start to their season overall. It all started back in July in the Champions League qualifiers, with them knocking out Mladost and Red Star Belgrade before the domestic season had began.
When it did begin, they lost their second game of the league campaign, but a win either side of it made up for that, as did a Champions League Playoff victory over Viktoria Plzen. This granted them qualification to the group stages, but with PSG, Arsenal, and Basel all vying for the top two places, it looks like it could be a difficult ask for them to make it any further.
Ludogorets are in decent form though. They beat Vereya 5-1 away from home on Friday to make it nine games unbeaten in all competitions, with six of them ending in victory. This includes a decent 1-1 draw at Basel in their Champions League opener. At home they are even better though, with five of their six home games this term ending in victory and the other being a draw.
PSG may be the favourites for this group, but they haven’t started the season well at all. They made it all the way to February in Ligue 1 without being defeated last season, but it took just three game-weeks for Monaco to hand them their first defeat of the season with a 3-1 win. A 1-1 draw at home to Saint Etienne followed, and they drew again against Arsenal in their Champions League opener.
The visitors did look like they were back again when they hammered Caen 6-0 and then beat Dijon 3-0, but at the weekend they sank to new lows. They faced last season’s relegation candidates Toulouse, and just after half time a sending off for Serge Aurier led to the hosts scoring the opener, and a second for Toulouse ten minutes before the end settled the scores.
This is a tough one to call. PSG have lost two and won two of their four away days so far this season, but they have been known to bounce back from poor results in style. Ludogorets have only lost three home games in their Champions League history though, with seven wins and four draws making up the rest of the results, including a draw against Liverpool.
Ludogorets have only failed to score twice in their 14 home Champions League games, but I can’t see them holding off a PSG side for the full 90 minutes either. This makes odds of 1/1 for Both Teams to Score look a good value bet, and I’m backing them to get a point with a 1-1 correct score prediction at 8/1.
Head To Head
This will be the first meeting between these two sides.
Stats
Ludogorets have scored in 86% of their home Champions League games.
Team News
Ludogorets are expecting to have a fully fit squad on Wednesday.
PSG are hoping that full back Layvin Kurzawa is fit enough to start, but fellow full back Thomas Meunier, midfielder Marco Verratti, and forward Hatem Ben Arfa could all miss out. Serge Aurier could play his final game for a while as well, with the full back being sentenced to two months in prison for assaulting a police officer.
