High-flying Rijeka will be hoping to extend their unbeaten run to 11 games when they host Stuttgart in the first leg of the Europa League play-offs.

Their more illustrious opponents are going through a rough patch at the moment, and they will give their best to return to winning ways in Croatia.

Croatian giants have enjoyed a remarkable turnaround in fortunes over the last couple of years, having gone from the brink of relegation to the European positions.

Third-place finish in the league last term saw Rijeka qualify for this year’s Europa League campaign and they have never looked back.

The Whites enjoyed a bright start to the season, recording an 8-0 aggregate victory over Prestatyn Town before eliminating Zilina as well.

Meanwhile, they have picked up 11 points from 5 league games, meaning they go into the Stuttgart clash full of confidence.

However, with some key men missing the all-important match, there is little value in odds of 3.80 (14/5) offered at Unibet on home win.

Captain Dario Knezevic, Vedran Jugovic and Josip Brezovec all miss out, whereas Matija Skarabot faces a fitness test.

Probable starting line-up (4-5-1): Vargic – Boras, Leskovic, Maric, Tomecak – Kvrzic, Zlomislic, Males, Alispahic, Sharbini – Benko.

This season hasn’t started well from Stuttgart and it is clear they have got to do whatever it takes to get their campaign back on track.

The Swabians were unfortunate to have quite a few important players pick up injuries in pre-season, and that was probably the main reason why they largely struggled in the Europa League third qualifying round against Botev Plovdiv.

Having somehow overcome the Bulgarians on away goals, they suffered back to back defeats to Mainz and Bayer Leverkusen at the start of the new Bundesliga championship.

As a result, the atmosphere in the team appears to be at an all time low, so the visitors could really use a good result in Croatia.

Stuttgart are 2.05 (21/20) favourites with Sportingbet to emerge triumphant, but the odds offered on away win are not that tempting at all.

Serdar Tasci, Georg Neidermeier, Johan Audel, Daniel Didavi, Marco Rojas and Timo Werner are all sidelined through injury.

Probable starting line-up (5-4-1): Ulreich – Sakai, Rudiger, Schwaab, Molinaro, Rausch – Harnik, Gentner, Leitner, Traore – Abdellaoue.

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