Nothing to gain for the Belarusian champions?
Dinamo Minsk secured the national championship title in Belarus for the first time in 19 years in the fall of 2023. The blue-and-whites can now represent the country, which is highly controversial due to its military entanglements with neighboring Russia, in qualifying for the UEFA Champions League 2024/25, but will now face a real heavyweight. The Bulgarians have already taken part in the Champions League group stage twice and certainly have one of the most illustrious names in this round, which is why our betting tip for Ludogorez Rasgrad vs Din. Minsk, our betting tip clearly tends towards the home team
The Belarusians must be given credit, however, for eliminating Armenian champions Pyunik Yerevan in the first round without conceding a goal in either leg, while the Bulgarians struggled against Georgian champions Dinamo Batumi, especially in the second leg. Nevertheless, in this article we will explain why Ludogorez Rasgrad vs Din. Minsk, a prediction on the first leg victory of the Eagles is almost without alternative
Belarus is still reeling from the sanctions resulting from Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine. This is also reflected in the fact that Dinamo Minsk have just six legionnaires in their ranks. If you combine the total market value of all players in the senior teams, Ludogorez Rasgrad – equipped with 22 legionnaires and eleven senior internationals – weighs in at almost eight times that amount. In other words, in terms of market value alone, it is a duel between a German Bundesliga team from the bottom third of the table and an average third division team.
The Eagles also celebrated a commanding 3:1 home win against Dinamo Batumi in the first qualifying round, setting the course for progress early on. It could be just as clear-cut now, which is why we recommend betting that the Bulgarians will emerge victorious with at least a two-goal difference
Ludogorez Rasgrad – Statistics & current form
Ludogorez Rasgrad have won the national championship 13 times, winning all 13 titles in the last 13 seasons. The Eagles (Bulgarian: Орлите) have recently become the absolute figurehead of their country and have already made it to the group stage of the Champions League twice.
This time, coach Georgi Dermendzhiev is expected to successfully maneuver the team through the qualifying rounds once again. Money has certainly been spent in the process. The club spent almost five million euros on transfer fees alone for the new summer signings – that is more than the total market value of many other Bulgarian first division clubs
Ludogorez Rasgrad with a successful dress rehearsal in the league
The season opener in the Parva Liga on Sunday didn’t go too badly. The Eagles celebrated a 1:0 home win over CSKA Sofia and thus successfully mastered their dress rehearsal for the next round of Champions League qualifying.
Ludogorez Rasgrad against Din. Minsk, the odds clearly favor the Bulgarian serial champions, who started the first qualifying round with a 3:1 home win over Dinamo Batumi
Ludogorez Rasgrad is extremely strong at home
However, the truth is that the second leg in Georgia was another close call for the Whites. In the end, they more or less shambled their way through to the next round with a 1-0 away defeat.
A year ago, Ludogorez escaped embarrassment in the first round against the Kosovan representative KF Ballkani after a 2-0 away defeat in the first leg only thanks to a clear 4-0 home win. However, this also underlines the international home strength of the Eagles, who have won eight of their last eleven home games in Europe (one draw, two defeats) and kept a clean sheet in six of these eight victories in their own stadium. That should certainly ensure a broad chest for the first leg against the Belarusian champions.
Ludogorez Rasgrad’s expected line-up:
Padt – Son, Verdon, Kurtulus, Witry – Piotrowski, Duarte, Naressi – Rick, Cruz, Tekpetey
Din. Minsk – Statistics & current form
FK Dinamo Minsk secured the championship title for the first time in 19 years last fall in the Belarusian top flight, which runs parallel to the calendar year. The blue-and-whites therefore started the new season, which began in March, in a confident mood, with very little going wrong so far.
After 15 match days, Torpedo Zhodino – the reigning cup winners – are hot on the heels of the capital city team. Nevertheless, the Minsk side are the only first division side in Belarus to remain completely unbeaten after 15 matchdays (ten wins, five draws).
Dinamo Minsk park the bus in their own penalty area?
Now the club coached by Vadim Skripchenko wants to get the PS on the road internationally, but will be put to the test for the first time. Against Armenian champions Pyunik Yerevan, the Blue & Whites at least kept a clean sheet in both the first and second legs and progressed very minimally thanks to a penalty converted by central defender Aleksei Gavrilovich in the 90th minute of the second leg.
The defensive artists from the Belarusian capital have also only conceded eight goals in 15 league games so far, which makes their tactical approach very easy to recognize. Accordingly, it can be assumed that the Belarusians will be very destructive in Bulgaria
Dinamo Minsk lack quality, especially across the board
In principle, Ludogorez Rasgrad against Din. Minsk, a bet that there will be no fireworks would be conceivable. On the other hand, however, Vadim Skripchenko’s team simply lack the necessary quality to really come away with the clean sheet against an opponent as nominally well-stocked as the Bulgarian champions.
Although the central defensive duo of Politevich and Gavrilovich have plenty of experience, both players are no longer the youngest at the age of 34 and are likely to find it difficult to take quick players like Rasgrad’s Tekpetey out of the game. Accordingly, it is a good bet that the Blue & Whites will ultimately fail to achieve their goal of securing a good starting position, which would still be halfway to a 0:1 or 1:2 defeat. We therefore recommend the bet that they will lose by at least two goals to one.
Predicted line-up of Din. Minsk:
Lapukhov – Pigas, Politevich, Gavrilovich, Lopes – Shkolik, Selyava, Demchenko – Podstrelov, Melnichenko, Zherdev
Ludogorez Rasgrad – Din. Minsk Direct comparison / H2H result
Head to head: 0 – 0 – 0
There has never been a competitive international match between the two clubs. There is no head-to-head data available for Ludogorez Rasgrad v Din. Minsk that could have an impact on this match.
Ludogorez Rasgrad – Din. Minsk betting tip
The betting odds for Ludogorez Rasgrad vs Din. Minsk, the odds of the best bookmakers are clearly in favor of the Eagles, who have almost eight times the total market value of the senior squad alone. The visitors are expected to park the bus in their own penalty area and hope to keep another clean sheet. That may have worked against the Armenian champions in the first qualifying round. However, it would definitely be the first big surprise of the young European season against the vastly superior Bulgarians
We assume that the Eagles will lay the foundations for progressing to the next qualifying round in the first leg, just as they did against Dinamo Batumi 3:1 in the first round. It is therefore interesting to bet that Ludogorez Rasgrad will win by at least two goals to one against Dinamo Minsk.
Intertops has odds of 2.06 available for this, which we play with four out of ten units.
