Can Levski Sofia shock the favorites?

After a 0-0 draw in the first leg, nothing has been decided yet in this matchup. However, there is still a favorite going into this game, as the hosts have a market value of €173 million, while the visiting team’s squad is valued at only €21.43 million. This will also be one of the reasons why the Braga vs. Levski Sofia odds from German bookmakers are so clearly in favor of a home win. But how likely is a home win actually?

We want to answer this question at the end of our Braga vs. Levski Sofia prediction and take a closer look at both teams. We’ll start with the home and away records of the two teams. Surprisingly, the visitors are doing quite well here, as the Bulgarian side has picked up 35 points from 19 games, averaging 1.84 points per game on the road. However, the Bulgarians still can’t keep up with the Portuguese, as the home side have averaged 2.00 points per game in their home matches. So this point goes to the hosts and, at the same time, to the favorites.

Braga – Team analysis Portugal

Braga will look back on the past season with some disappointment, as their exit from the Europa League group stage was followed by elimination in the quarter-finals of the Portuguese Cup. In addition, Carlos Vicens’ team finished “only” fourth in their domestic league, missing out on the Champions League and direct qualification for the Europa League. Financially, this is obviously a setback. Reaching the next round is therefore the club’s top priority. The club wants to remain attractive internationally and needs this competition to do so. Anything less than a win against Levski Sofia would therefore be a huge disappointment.    

Braga will break down the Bulgarian defense

With 85 goals in 54 competitive games (⌀ 1.57), Carlos Vicens’ team proved to be quite dangerous in front of goal last season. In addition, the Portuguese side failed to score only eight times, finding the back of the net in 85.19% of their games. Four players stood out in particular: Bruma, Ricardo Horta, Amine El Ouazzani, and Rodrigo Zalazar. The quartet scored 46 goals in the previous season and also set up 30 more. However, Bruma moved to Benfica Lisbon during the winter break, leaving a gap to fill. The club has already strengthened its offense with Pau Victor (Barcelona – €12 million).

Braga is also very solid defensively

Carlos Vicens’ team is looking just as good defensively, with only 53 goals conceded in 54 games, putting the Portuguese side below the magic threshold of 1.0 goals conceded per game. Nevertheless, the club took advantage of the summer break to sign two interesting defensive-minded players in Gustaf Lagerbielke (Celtic – €2.5 million) and Mario Dorgeles (Nordsjaelland – €11 million). We would therefore not be surprised if Braga performs even better in the coming season than it did last season. And that’s not easy with 21 clean sheets in 54 competitive games (38.89 percent). A “clean sheet” against the Bulgarian representative from Sofia therefore seems realistic.   

Predicted line-up:
Hornicek – Lagerbielke, Carvalho, Oliveira, Arrey-Mbi – Dorgeles, Gorby, Moutinho – Horta, Victor, Zalazar

Levski Sofia – Team analysis

Levski Sofia secured second place in the Bulgarian top flight and qualified for the Europa League, already knocking Hapoel Beer Sheva out of the competition. However, progress was very difficult, as the score was still 0-0 after 180 minutes between the two teams.

In the end, Velazquez’s team prevailed in a penalty shootout to reach the second round. However, the Bulgarians benefited from two red cards, so this success should not be overrated. In the return leg against Sporting Braga, the club will pursue a similar plan and try to keep a clean sheet.nbsp;      

Levski Sofia is far too harmless

The Bulgarians have already played three games in the qualifying phase and have not scored a single goal in regular time. This is obviously disappointing and clearly highlights the discrepancy between the quality at national and international level. In the Bulgarian top flight and in the cup, Julio Velazquez’s team scored 67 goals in 39 games (⌀ 1.72) and rarely failed to find the net. So it’s not as if the club is completely lacking in goal-scoring threat. However, chances will be few and far between against Sporting Braga’s strong defense, so the visitors cannot necessarily be expected to score.

Levski Sofia defends with passion

Julio Velazquez’s team lacks the quality in attack to keep up with Sporting Braga. Defensively, things look a little different, as the Bulgarian back line has done a good job, conceding only one goal in the last six competitive games. For this reason, the Portuguese side only managed two shots on goal in the first leg and remained harmless for long periods of the 90 minutes. However, we do not expect the visitors to keep a clean sheet, as the Bulgarian side is significantly weaker away from home than at home. The same applies to the home side, who are much stronger at home than away.     

Predicted line-up:
Vutsov – Neves, Dimitrov, Makoun, Maicon – Trdin, Kostadinov, Rildo, Petkov, Kirilov – Sangare

Braga – Levski Sofia Head-to-head record

The roles could hardly be clearer ahead of this match, as the first two sections of our analysis show. The home side are individually superior, difficult to beat at home and in similar form to the Bulgarian runners-up. The head-to-head record does not change this either, as the 0-0 draw in the first leg was the only meeting between these two clubs and is therefore of little significance.

It is therefore no surprise that the Braga vs. Levski Sofia betting odds for an away win are extremely high. At the bookmaker we tested, Betano, you can get maximum odds of 14.00.

Braga – Levski Sofia Tip

We recommend the Braga vs. Levski Sofia betting tip for “both teams to score – no.” This is primarily due to the visiting team, which has failed to score a single goal in its first three games of this Europa League qualifying round. In addition, the home side are very solid defensively and even strengthened their back line in the summer.

Furthermore, the 0-0 draw in Sofia also plays a role in our decision, because even with the fans behind them, the Bulgarians were unable to pose a serious threat in front of goal. Last but not least, we expect a very deep-lying away team that will limit itself to counterattacks.

In addition, you can also add the Braga vs. Levski Sofia odds for a home win in combination with under 3.5 goals in the game to your betting slip. As already mentioned, we expect a defensive battle from the Bulgarians and, accordingly, few big chances, as was the case in the first leg. This is, of course, due to the destructive style of play of the visiting team. We definitely believe the home side is capable of scoring and therefore winning.