Cork City – Legia Prediction & Picks (10.07.2018)

On 10 June 2019 the time has come. The UEFA Champions League final takes place in Madrid, at the Estadio Metropolitano, home of Atletico Madrid. The way there started a few days ago with individual pre-matches of the qualification. The first leg of the first round of the CL qualifiers will be completed this week. Of course, the betting base also enters the competition at this early stage and provides all the readers with the necessary facts. In this article we take a close look at the match between the Irish representative Cork City and Legia Warsaw. Is perhaps a tip on the Polish representative worthwhile to passable odds? The kick-off in the Turners Cross takes place at the CL Prime Time at 19:45.

Cork City:

The team from the south of Ireland has qualified by winning the Irish Premier League last year for the first round of the incipient Champions League. They replaced the current leaders, the Dundalk FC, as champions. The team is trained since 2013 by the American John Caulfield. Since the league aligns itself to the calendar year, Cork is fully in the juice and is not like the opponent from Poland in the preparatory phase. That could be a small – perhaps decisive – advantage. In the league, it will be difficult for Cork to defend the title.

Currently they are in second place in the table. The gap to Dundalk is four points, while the lead over third-placed Waterford comfortably thirteen points. With 46 goals scored and 16 goals in each, Cork City has the second-best value in the league. Especially in the local Turners Cross they are a power. Of the twelve games played, eleven could be won. Only in the last home game against the Shamrock Rovers, it was enough only to a goalless 0-0 draw. Here Kieran Sadlier missed after 60 minutes of the game a penalty, so they left the first points in their own stadium. With 12 goals each, Kieran Sadlier and Graham Cummins are the most dangerous offensive forces in Coach Caulfield’s team.

Legia:

In two weeks, the 13-time Polish champion will start the title defense in Ekstraklasa. On Matchday 1 they meet Zaglebie Lubin. The team of the Croatian coach Dean Klafuric is in the hot preparation phase. Can Cork City be a real touchstone? The Polish league is certainly stronger than the Irish and Legia Warsaw, who won the title three times in a row, are the flagship of the league. But in this phase before the season is not sure everything is going well. Although the preparation matches could be denied without defeat, but a real blast opponent was not there.

In the last game it was enough against the Polish second division Radomiak Radom only to a 0-0 draw. One of the stars in the team is Jaroslaw Niezgoda, who scored 13 goals in his first season for Legia. As a strike partner, the Spaniard Carlitos was obliged, which has changed from league rivals Wisla Krakow to the Vistula. In Krakow he scored 24 goals last season. So there is enough offensive power to score one or the other away goals.