Rakow vs Zilina Prediction and Betting Tips | July 24th 2025

Rakow will host Zilina at the Miejski Stadion Piłkarski Raków on Thursday in the first leg of their 2025-26 second-round UEFA Conference League qualifying campaign. The home side enjoyed a strong campaign last season, although they suffered late capitulation, winning just one of their final three league games, which ultimately saw them miss out on the Polish title by one point.

Following a largely positive pre-season campaign, Rakow kicked off the new season with a narrow but thoroughly deserved 1-0 win over Katowice in the Ekstraklasa last weekend and will be looking to build on that when they begin their quest for Europe on Thursday.

Zilina also performed well domestically last season as they finished runners-up in the Slovakian Superliga. They have now returned to the European qualifiers after missing out last season and will be desperate for a positive first-leg result ahead of the return leg next week.

The visitors, however, failed to impress during the off-season, most recently suffering a 3-1 defeat to Austrian outfit Grazer AK and have work to do this week.

Rakow vs Zilina Head-to-Head and Key Numbers

• Thursday's game will mark the first-ever meeting between the two clubs.
• Rakow's only previous encounter with Slovak opposition came back in the 2022-23 campaign when they played Spartak Trnava in the Conference League qualifiers, winning the two-legged tie 3-0 on aggregate.
• Zilina's only previous encounter with Polish opposition came back in 1997 when they faced Odra Wodzisław in the now-defunct UEFA Intertoto Cup, with their group-stage clash ending goalless.
• The visitors have managed just one clean sheet in their last 10 competitive outings.
• Rakow had the best defensive record in the Polish top-flight last season with a goal-concession tally of 23.

Rakow vs Zilina Prediction

Medaliki are undefeated in their last seven outings, picking up four wins in that period. They have the slightly stronger side on paper and will be further boosted by their home advantage this week.

Šošoni will head into the midweek clash on the back of a four-game losing streak. They ended the previous campaign with just one win in five away matches and could lose here.

Prediction: Rakow 3-1 Zilina

Rakow vs Zilina Betting Tips

Tip 1 - Result: Rakow to win

Tip 2 - Goals - Over/under 2.5 - Over 2.5 goals (Four of the visitors' last five matches have produced more than 2.5 goals)

Tip 3 - Both teams to score: YES (Both sides have found the back of the net in four of the visitors' last five matches)

Edited by Peter P