APOEL Nicosia vs Slovan Bratislava

Neo GSP Stadium sets the stage for the return leg of a one-sided Champions League qualifying tie between APOEL Nicosia and Slovan Bratislava.

An own goal and Robert Mak’s stoppage-time beauty condemned APOEL to a painful 2-0 defeat in Bratislava last week, hindering their chances of returning to the main stage of the Champions League for the first time in seven years. Unless they can pull off a stunning second-leg comeback, the Cypriot giants will continue their continental journey in Europa League qualifying. That’s a distinct possibility, considering the hosts haven’t scored more than twice in a competitive home game in their last 17 matches (W7, D5, L5). Moreover, not since their run to the 2019/20 UCL qualifying play-off round have David Gallego’s men won a home outing in either of UEFA’s top two competitions via a multi-goal margin, suggesting their best hope of turning this tie on its head is to take this encounter to extra time.

On the other hand, Slovan Bratislava held up their end of the bargain in the first leg to move closer to their first-ever appearance in the Champions League group stages. If the visitors protect their lead in Nicosia, they’ll meet one of Midtjylland and Ferencvaros in a play-off tie. Head coach Vladimir Weiss will expect nothing less from his side after the abovementioned first-leg triumph maintained Slovan’s near-flawless start to the 2024/25 competitive season (W6, D1). However, the Slovaks cannot take anything for granted, given back-to-back away defeats in qualifying rounds last term sent them into the Europa Conference League group phase. One of those losses was a 6-2 demolition at APOEL’s domestic rivals Aris Limassol.