Salzburg have a chance to make history on Thursday when they host Serie A side Lazio at Red Bull Arena in the second leg of their UEFA Europa League quarter-finals tie. The first leg was quite spectacular, with six goals scored and a 4-2 victory for Lazio. The two goals scored away from home give Salzburg a decent chance of qualifying, but they still need to put two goals past Lazio to pull that off. They did defeat Lazio 2-1 in Austria back in 2009, when the two teams met in the group stage of the Europa League.
Salzburg have established themselves as a rock-solid team at home this season, they have not lost a home match in all competitions since the start of the campaign and have kept clean sheets in 14 of the 17 matches that they have played at home this season. However, after the defeat at Lazio they lost 1-0 at LASK Linz in the Austrian league, and that is the first time they lose back-to-back matches since October 2016. Diadie Samassekou is suspended for Thursday's match.
Lazio can consider themselves in control of the tie after the 4-2 first-leg victory, but they have to play well in Salzburg if they want to pull through. Lazio are unbeaten in their last seven matches in all competitions and they have won their last three games, including last weekend's 2-1 Serie A victory at Udinese. That result puts them up in third place in the league table, but they will have to fight for it until the end of the season with Roma and Inter. Marco Parolo is the only injury concern for the away side.
Probable line-ups:
Salzburg: Walke - Lainer, Ramalho, Caleta-Car, Ulmer - Yabo, Haidara, Berisha, Schlager - Gulbrandsen, Dabur
Lazio: Strakosha - Felipe, De Vrij, Radu - Basta, Alberto, Leiva, Milinkovic-Savic, Lulic - Anderson - Immobile
My prediction: Salzburg to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Salzburg win - 2.25
Draw - 3.70
Lazio win - 3.20
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