Dinamo Minsk v Hearts: Prediction, Tips and Odds

Hearts will hope to put their domestic woes behind them as they head to Azerbaijan for their UEFA Conference League league phase opener against Belarusian champions Dinamo Minsk.

The Edinburgh club, bottom of the Scottish Premiership without a win to their name, have been handed a thankless trip across four time zones to take on Dinamo, with the tie being played in a neutral venue in Azerbaijan and behind closed doors.

Dinamo Minsk v Hearts betting tips and predictions

Dinamo Minsk to win - 7/4

Hearts will be looking to finally kick their season into life on Thursday.

The Jambos, now under the interim management of Liam Fox following Steven Naismith's exit, have failed to win any of 10 matches played this season and are bottom of the Scottish Premiership.

To make it 11th time lucky they will need to get the better of Dinamo Minsk, who are in a strong position to successfully defend their title this year.

In Hearts' favour is that the match is not being played in Minsk, or indeed Belarus, and is also being played behind closed doors.

Not in their favour, however, is the fact that they have had to travel over 3,300 miles to the Caspian Sea port city of Sumgait to fulfil a fixture which looks like a massive inconvenience less than three days before they head to Pittodrie for a critical league game at Aberdeen.

Fox has taken a strong squad and will field a side he will feel is capable of securing a victory, but the value has to be in Dinamo to win given their respective formbooks.

Vadim Skripchenko's men have already played eight European ties this season and not let themselves down at all.

They beat Armenian side Pyunik 1-0 on aggregate before losing to Bulgarians Ludogorets 2-1 on aggregate in the UEFA Champions League.

Demoted to the UEFA Europa League, they beat Lincoln Red Imps 3-2 before being pipped twice 1-0 home and away by Anderlecht.

All four "home" games were played at neutral venues and behind closed doors, so this experience is nothing new to them.

They have won four of their last five matches and their squad is packed with players who have helped Belarus to the top of Nations League C Group 3.

Hearts are in terrible form, were eliminated from the UEFA Europa League by Viktoria Plzen after losing both legs 1-0 and can't score goals despite having hot-shot Lawrence Shankland leading their line.

Dmitri Podstrelov anytime scorer - 15/4

It's 8/13 for there to be Under 2.5 Goals, which accurately reflects the lack of obvious scoring power with either side.

Between these two clubs they have played 10 European matches this term and scored the grand total of five goals, all for Dinamo.

A draw clearly wouldn't represent a bad result for either team at the start of a six-match group-stage campaign which will see 24 of the 36 teams progress to at least one more round.

To that end there may not be many goals, but Dinamo will create chances because they are at least finding the net in their domestic competition.

Among the likely candidates to score is winger or wing-back Dmitri Podstrelov, who is 15/4 to score at any time.

The 26-year-old Belarus ace has found the net six times this season in all competitions and scored in last week's big derby win over Isloch Minsk.

Over 4.5 Dinamo Minsk corners - 5/6

Dinamo Minsk averaged exactly 4.5 corners per game in their short-lived UEFA Europa League qualifying campaign.

The Belarusian champions had averaged 4.75 in their equally short-lived UEFA Champions League qualifying campaign before that.

As the home side - even if the venue is a neutral one - they will need to be positive with three away games to play, so expect them to be able to reach five corners against Fox's men.

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Dinamo Minsk v Hearts odds

Dinamo Minsk - 7/4
Draw - 23/10
Hearts - 11/8

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This article was written by a partner sports writer via Spotlight Sports Group. All odds displayed on this page were correct at the time of writing and are subject to withdrawal or change at any time.