Nordsjaelland – Partizan

Europa Conference League Qualifying Final Round Leg 1
Nordsjaelland, August 24, 18:30 CET

It has been clear for days that the Danish vice-champion Nordsjaelland is completely concentrated on two matches against Partizan, in the final qualifying round of the Europa Conference League.
The Danish team seemed completely defocused on Sunday, in an unexpected 2:0 defeat in the domestic championship (Danish Superliga). Thus ended the team's streak of six matches without defeat, during which Nordsjaelland was extremely efficient. The reason for that defeat was obviously that the players' minds were already in this match against Partizan, the most important for them this summer.
In the previous qualifying round, Nordsjaelland routinely defeated Romanian FCSB, the former European champion, 2:0. Obviously, this team plays better at home, also extremely efficiently. The Danes are aware that they have a fantastic chance to win the place in the group stage of the European competition, which would also mean significant earnings for the club. The focus is completely on this duel, and the host will be looking for a convincing triumph.
On the other hand, the Belgrade team Partizan is in obvious problems this summer. In the previous round, the team from Azerbaijan Sabah Baku was defeated in two matches, but with great problems. The club from Serbia was defeated 2:0 away from home and was completely disappointing in that game. Then they won 2:0 on their home field – and won the place in the last round of the playoffs in a penalty shootout. It must be pointed out that Nordsjaelland is a much better team, than Sabah Baku.
Interestingly, the teams played in the qualifiers for the Europa League in 2018, Partizan then won 2:1 away and 3:2 at home. Again, an open game is expected with plenty of chances on both sides. However, Partizan is now much less offensively potent, compared to the team that played half a decade ago.
Nordsjaelland managed to win in three official matches played at home since the beginning of the season - and in each of those matches, the Danish team scored at least two goals. A similar scenario is expected in this match.
The home team will not count on defender Jensen-Abbew and midfielder Dorgelas. Great talent, wing-forward Nuamah was sold to French Lyon for over 30 million euros, Nordsjaelland will certainly invest part of that money in good reinforcements. The most important thing to point out is that the team's attack and efficiency will not suffer after the departure of Nuamah, which was seen in the previous two weeks (the team was offensively inspired in a series of matches in which he failed to score).
Partizan, on the other hand, will not count on the suspended midfielder Belic and that is a big handicap for the Belgrade team. The Serbian football public does not expect this team to win the place in the group stage - the club is in serious organizational problems. On the other hand, Nordsjaelland is considered as a much more coordinated team, which performs with more energy and will know how to exploit the obvious weaknesses of the opponent.
Wins over Viborg (4:1), Aarhus (3:1), Brondby (3:1) and Randers (5:0) in recent months reflect the obvious quality of the Nordsjaelland team. On the other hand, Partizan has big problems in defense when playing away - so two goals for the home team in this game is almost a certain outcome.