Rapid Vienna vs. Sparta Prague: Preview and betting tips

Sparta will play their first Champions League qualification match on Tuesday, when they will face local Rapid in Vienna. If Sparta succeeds in this double-header and advances, they will already be assured of a Europa League group.

Rapid has played six friendlies in preparation with a record of three wins, two draws and one loss. They have beaten Copenhagen in Denmark and drew with Lokomotiv Moscow. This Friday they won the first round of the Austrian Cup 6-0 against Weiner Victoria.

Sparta has even managed seven friendlies. Five times it won, on the other hand it did not fare well with the stronger teams (losing to Wolfsberger 2: 3 and drawing with Dynamo Moscow 2: 2). On the positive side, Letenski kept an average of 3.57 goals per game in the preparation.

Sparta has to watch out for Ercan Kara, the Austrian playmaker scored 20 goals last season in all competitions, and the team is also supported by creative midfielder Christoph Knasmüllner and left back Maximilian Ullmann.

Sparta relies on its young Adams. Adam Hložek was the top scorer in the Fortuna Liga last season with fifteen goals, while Adam Karabec has been getting more and more playing time and has claimed a solid place in the line-up in preparation.

Rapid will miss injured Dalibor Velimirovic and Philipp Schobesberger, while Sparta will be without Ondrej Celestka, Lukáš Julius and Jan Fortelný.

In Sparta’s friendlies, not only Sparta scored goals, but also the opponents, and in six out of seven you could bet on both teams to score.

It was the Rapid’s defence that worked well, keeping a clean sheet in four of the seven pre-season games.

Given the good defensive performance of Rapid, I think Sparta will score at most one goal.