Mourinho Era at Fenerbahce Gets Underway Lugano vs Fenerbahce

UCL Odds: First UCL Qualifier for Lugano in Over 20 Years

First meeting: Fenerbahce vs. Lugano
Lugano without last season’s top scorer
Mourinho leads revamped Fenerbahce squad

July 22, 2024 262 4 minutes readChampions League News

Mourinho Era at Fenerbahce Gets Underway Lugano vs Fenerbahce — Photo taken from sportskeeda.com

First Ever Meeting Between These UCL Hopefuls
Lugano: Lost Last Season’s Top Scorer
Fenerbahce: High Expectations for Mourinho
Match Analysis & Odds

First Ever Meeting Between These UCL Hopefuls

The Jose Mourinho era at Fenerbahce will get officially underway on Tuesday as Mourinho’s side take on Lugano in the second round of Champions League Qualifiers. Fenerbahce haven’t won a Turkish Super Lig title for over 10 years and have never won a major UEFA competition.

Mourinho has been successful nearly everywhere he’s gone and the expectations are high. On the other hand, Lugano are looking for their first ever UCL group stage appearance. It’s still a long road ahead and the Lugano vs Fenerbahce UCL odds list the hosts as +300 underdogs for this one. As Lugano look to pull off the upset, we’ll check out the rest of the odds board.

Lugano vs Fenerbahce

Date & Time: Tuesday, July 23rd, 2:30 p.m. ET
Location: Stockhorn Arena, Thun, Switzerland

Lugano vs Fenerbahce Head-to-Head

This is the first chance to bet on Lugano vs Fenerbahce UCL odds and their first meeting in any competition. Lugano’s first matches against a Turkish club were in last season’s UEFA Europa Conference League, when they defeated Besiktas 3-2 on the road but fell 2-0 at home.

Fenerbahce are 3-2-1 all-time vs Swiss clubs and haven’t played a team from Switzerland since 2016, when they beat Grasshopper 5-0, on aggregate, in that season’s Europa League playoff round.

Lugano: Lost Last Season’s Top Scorer

Lugano finished in second place in the Swiss Super League in 2023-24, which was their highest finish since the 2000-01 season. Since Mattia Croci-Torti took over as Lugano’s coach in 2021, he’s guided them to three straight top four finishes. It’s the club’s best run in over two decades and they have the chance to qualify for the Champions League group stage for the first time in their history.

They’ll have to advance through three rounds of qualifying to get there while their domestic campaign has already gotten underway. In their Swiss Super League season opener, on Saturday, Lugano took down Grasshoppers 2-1 as Kacper Przybylko and Uran Bislimi helped the hosts complete a comeback win.

Lugano are one of the most popular soccer betting picks to win the Swiss Super League this season for the first time since 1949, at +400 odds. European success is a pipedream at this point, though, as they’ve won just one of their last 16 games in UEFA competitions.

During that span, they’re 1-3-12. Last season, they went 1-1-4 in the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage. Also, last season’s Swiss Super League Golden Boot winner, Zan Celar, recently left Lugano for Queens Park Rangers. Bislimi, Przybylko and Renato Steffen will have to pick up the scoring slack.

Fenerbahce: High Expectations for Mourinho

Fenerbahce are one of the big three Istanbul clubs but they haven’t enjoyed much success lately. Their only trophy in the last decade was a 2023 Turkish Cup win. Jose Mourinho is tasked with delivering Fenerbahce a rare league title and a first Champions League group stage berth since the 2008-09 season.

Last season, Fener managed 99 points in the Super Lig and just one loss but it still wasn’t enough to beat Galatasaray to the title. In the offseason, Fenerbahce striker Michy Batshuayi controversially departed for Galatasaray but Mourinho has strengthened his squad.

Cenk Tosun, Caglar Soyuncu, Oguz Aydin, Rade Krunic and Levent Mercan have all joined on a permanent basis. Meanwhile, winger Allant Saint-Maximin has joined on loan and is one of the best dribblers in the world.

Fenerbahce have to get through three rounds of qualifying to reach the UCL group stage and are one of the more intriguing Champions League picks. Left back Ferdi Kadioglu was one of the breakout players of the Euros and it’d be a massive win if Fenerbahce can hold onto him through the Summer.

He, Tosun, Mert Muldur, Samet Akaydin, Ismail Yuksek and Irfan Kahveci all were part of Turkey’s Euro 2024 squad. Tosun and Kahveci played in last Thursday’s 5-1 friendly victory over Hull City but it’s unclear if the others will be available.

Edin Dzeko, who scored 21 Super Lig goals last season, is available. So are Sebastian Szymanski and Dusan Tadic, who both reached double digit goals and assists in 2023-24.

Lugano vs Fenerbahce Match Analysis & Odds

Jose Mourinho has won all three of the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League as a coach. He’ll undoubtedly have his squad prepared for Tuesday’s Champions League qualifier in Switzerland. The Champions League odds price Fenerbahce at a -122 price for this one and they’re 9-1-0 in their last 10 European qualifiers.

This is a huge occasion for Lugano, who are playing in just their third Champions League match ever. Their inexperience at this level contributes to the fact that they’re underdogs. The best Lugano vs Fenerbahce UCL odds bettors can get on “hosts” Lugano, who are playing over three hours from home in Thun, are +320.

Lugano conceded 19 times in eight UEFA games last season and their defense is a concern. Over 2.5 goals show -133 odds for this one and Fenerbahce scored nine goals in their last two preseason matches alone.

A draw would be somewhat disappointing for Mourinho and Fenerbahce but one comes in at +280 odds. Meanwhile, Lugano +0.5 sits at +105 as they look for just their second-ever UCL victory.