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  • Lincoln Win Can Provide Huge Boost To Our Champions League Treble

Lincoln win can provide huge boost to our Champions League treble

Lincoln Red Imps at Fola Esch 2-2 Jul21

The giants of Hungary and Slovakia look set to roar, while at the other end of the scale a shock could be on the cards in Gibraltar.

The Euros are done and dusted, the tiny car is back in the garage and the confetti has been cleared away, and now all eyes turn to next season.
And while most players are either sunning themselves or working hard on the training ground, for some sides the start of Champions League qualification last week meant an early return to competitive action.
And we've zeroed in on three of those second legs for today's acca.

FC Prishtina v Ferencvaros

The performance of Kosovan champions FC Prishtina was anything but pristine against Ferencvaros in the first leg, losing 3-0 in Budapest.
The visitors failed to muster a single shot on target and ran out of steam spectacularly in the second half, conceding three times in the last 20 minutes.

The Green Eagles are no strangers to a Champions League battle and will fear the return leg about as much as their avian namesake would fear a field mouse, so they are the banker leg of our acca, at 2/5.

Shamrock Rovers v Slovan Bratislava

League of Ireland champions Shamrock Rovers have a real fight on their hands if they are to qualify for the second qualifying round of the Champions League, as they trail Slovan Bratislava 2-0 after the first leg.
That result did not flatter Bratislava at all and they could have been out of sight had Rovers keeper Alan Mannus not saved Vladimir Weiss' 90th-minute penalty.
The Hoops struggled to break down their more seasoned opponents and couldn't contain Bratislava's brilliant Brazilian Rafael Ratao, who nabbed both the visitors' goals.

And with Rovers forced to go for it, that may well leave them vulnerable to the counter attack, so we're happy to side with the visitors, at 23/20.

Lincoln Red Imps v Fola Esch

Gibraltan champions Lincoln Red Imps will be unfamiliar to everyone except Celtic fans, who no doubt remember with a shudder the day they inflicted the most embarrassing defeat in the Bhoys' history.

That 1-0 win in 2016 will live long in the memory, but it is by no means their only taste of success in Europe, and the Imps' latest achievement was a 2-2 draw in Luxembourg in the first leg, which also extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to eight games.
And while the standard of the Gibraltan league is nothing to write home about, neither is the Luxembourg top flight!

And we reckon a visiting Fola Esch side that has never won a Champions League qualifying game are ripe for the picking by a team that will have taken tremendous confidence from avoiding defeat last week, so we're going for the shock to round off our acca, at 11/5.

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