Gornik Zabrze – Zaria Balti Today’s Soccer Prediction

Górnik Zabrze (Poland) and FC Zaria Balti (Moldova) will play on July 12, 2018, in the first leg of the Europa League Preliminary Round I, 2018-2019. The match will take place at the “Ernest Pohl” stadium in Zabrze at 21:00 and will be arbitrated by Filip Glova from Slovakia. The second round will be played on Wednesday, July 19, 2018, at the “Zimbru” stadium in Chisinau, at 20:00.

Prediction Gornik Zabrze – Zaria Balti

Sportowy Club Górnik Zabrze

Górnik Zabrze qualified with great emotions in the Europa League after being ranked 4th in Ekstraklasa. Before the last round, the Zabrze group had 57 points, just like Wisła Płock, but it lost away with Jagiellonia Białystok (1-2) and Górnik won home with Wisła Kraków (2-0). Thus, the “miners” returned to the European Cups after a 24-year break! Last time, Górnik Zabrze played in the UEFA Cup in the 1994-1995 season when he eliminated her on the Shamrock Rovers in Ireland (7-0 and 1-0), but could not pass Admira Wacker from Austria 2-5 and 1-1). Now, “Trójkolorowi” wants to reach the Europa League, but for the first time they will have to eliminate FC Zaria Bălţi. The Polish Championship will start on July 22, when Górnik Zabrze will play at home with Korona Kielce in the first round. Górnik Zabrze supported 6 friendly games this summer, having a victory with SFC Opava (2-1), a draw with FK Třinec Football (0-0) and three defeats with MFK Karviná (1-3), Hajduk Split (0 -4) and GKS Katowice (1-3).

Football Club Zaria Balti

FC Zaria Bălţi finished 5th in the National Division last season, having 24 points, 21 points of FC Sheriff Tiraspol. The Bălţi group got a seat of the Europa League because it played the Moldova Cup final with FC Sheriff Tiraspol, which it lost with the score of 5-0 in the season 2016-2017. Now, after 14 stages played in the Moldavian Championship, FC Zaria Balti is on the last place in the standings with 9 points. In the 14 stages played this season, the “red-blacks” won one victory, 1-0 home with FC Speranta Crihana, the rest had 6 draws and 7 defeats. The team supported by Bălţi City Hall aims to maintain the National Division and will fight against Zimbru Chişinău, FC Dinamo-Auto Tiraspol and FC Sfântu Gheorghe Suruceni, in order to avoid relegation. After losing in the Championship with Zimbru Chişinău (3-4, away) and FC Sheriff Tiraspol (1-5, away), FC Zaria Balti managed in the last official game to defeat Victoria Bardar with 4-1 and, with a general score of 8-2 to qualify in the quarter-finals of the Moldavian Cup.

The Poles come from a stronger championship, have a more valuable batch and a larger budget plus the ambition to qualify in the Europa League. The Moldavians made their debut in the Europa League in the 2016-2017 season, when they were eliminated by Videoton Fehérvár (0-3 and 2-0) and in the 2017-2018 season they passed FK Sarajevo (1-2, 2-1 and 6 -5p), but they were removed from the competition by Apollon Limassol (0-3 and 1-2). They did not have poor performances in the European Cups, but now they seem to have no chance in front of the Poles, because they have financial problems and have very poor results in the championship. Coach Marcin Brosz will tackle the match with FC Zaria Bălţi only on victory, while technician Vlad Goian will try Zabrze to limit the score. Górnik Zabrze, who will have the support of the fans, will try to get the qualifying from the first leg and will certainly try to open the score as fast as possible to make the match easy.

Prediction Today:  Górnik Zabrze wins both halves
Odds: 2.25