Shamrock Rovers vs Apollon Limassol Predictions

Apollon are an experienced European side that certainly won’t be taking their trip to Ireland lightly this week. The visitors have qualified for the Europa League group stage on a regular basis since 2013 and will be expected to negotiate their way passed Shamrock Rovers this weekend. The hosts have only made it through to the group stage once before and that year they went on to compete against the likes of Tottenham, PAOK, and Rubin Kazan, and the prospect of memories like that has the Shamrock fans buzzing.

Shamrock Rovers took on UCD at the Tallaght Stadium on Sunday in the Premier Division, where a brace from Carr and goals from Cummins and Byrne saw the hosts leading 4-0 at the interval. McEneff made it 5-0 just two minutes after the restart and a brace from Greene saw Shamrock Rovers wrap up an impressive 7-0 win in front of 1,500 Dubliners. Apollon were already 2-0 up after the 1st leg victory over Kauno Zalgiris ahead of the pairs encounter in Cyprus, and just five minutes into the match Zelaya scored to effectively end any hopes of a comeback for the visitors. Zelaya completed his hat trick thanks to penalties either side of halftime and teammate Szalai made it 4-0 on the night and 6-0 on aggregate with his eighty-third-minute effort.

Each teams European experience, their form, and their manner of their performances over the last month or so, points towards Apollon winning and keeping a clean sheet on Thursday. Shamrock Rovers have only qualified for the group stage of a major European competition once before, while Apollon have regularly qualified for the group stage of the Europa League since 2013. Apollon have won three of their last six matches, while Shamrock have failed to score in two of their last four home games. Apollon kept clean sheets in each of their legs against Kauno Zalgiris in the last round of qualifiers, which is why we’re backing a 1-0 win for the visitors on Thursday.

Zelaya is the danger man for the visitors having scored four times in the qualifiers already this season, while Shamrock Rovers don’t have any players with more than one Europa League goal to their name so far. We’re confident that Apollon will win to nil on Thursday and have predicted a final scoreline of 1-0. Apollon have key experience in Europe and know what it takes to get through to the group stage, while Shamrock Rovers lack that same depth of knowledge and simply do not have the same quality of players in their squad as their guests.