The Mewa Arena prepares for a Czech invasion

The Conference League is often mocked as the tournament for teams who forgot how to win their domestic leagues, but tell that to the 34,000 Mainz fans currently treating this like a World Cup final. After clawing their way to 6th in the Bundesliga last season, the 05ers have traded their usual survival anxiety for the intoxicating scent of European nights.

Mainz enter this tie as the heavy favorites, mostly because they play in a league where teams actually defend. Jonathan Burkardt has been in the kind of form that makes scouts from the Premier League start checking their bank balances, and Bo Henriksen has turned the Mewa Arena into a place where visiting teams go to lose their dignity. They are organized, aggressive, and frankly, far too good for this competition when they actually bother to show up.

Across the pitch stands Sigma Olomouc, a team that qualified by winning the Czech Cup while simultaneously forgetting to be consistent in the league. They finished 6th in the Chance Liga, a position that suggests they are the kings of being "just okay." Their defense is about as reliable as a chocolate teapot in a heatwave, evidenced by a 0-5 thrashing at the hands of Slavia Prague earlier this year.

However, in Jan Kliment, they possess a striker who seems to score whenever he gets bored. If Mainz underestimate the Moravian visitors, they might find themselves on the wrong end of a very embarrassing headline. But let’s be REAL. The gap in quality between the Bundesliga and the Czech top flight is roughly the size of the Rhine.

Mainz will look to suffocate the game early, exploit Olomouc’s tendency to fall apart under pressure, and secure a comfortable cushion before the return leg. Expect plenty of noise, a lot of tactical fouling, and a very long bus ride home for the Czechs.

Prediction: Mainz 3-0 Sigma Olomouc