Red Star Belgrade vs Pafos Prediction and Betting Tips | August 19th 2025

Red Star Belgrade will face Pafos at the Stadium Rajko Mitic on Tuesday in the first leg of their 2025-26 UEFA Champions League play-off round qualifying clash. The home side have enjoyed a bright start to their league campaign, beating Mladost 4-1 last time out to make it four wins in four, but will break from that this week as they turn their attention to continental football.

They traded tackles with Lech Poznan in the third round of the qualifiers, beating the Polish club 3-1 in their first-leg clash via goals from Rade Krunic and Bruno Duarte. They then finished the job on home turf a week later as they played out a 1-1 draw to advance to the play-off round.

Pafos, meanwhile, began their quest for Champions League football in the second round of the qualifiers, facing Maccabi Tel-Aviv, who they beat 2-1 on aggregate. They were then drawn against Dynamo Kyiv in the next round and picked up an impressive 3-0 aggregate victory as they beat the Ukrainian champions both home and away.

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Red Star Belgrade vs Pafos Head-to-Head and Key Numbers

• Tuesday's game will mark the first-ever meeting between Red Star and Pafos.
• The hosts have had nine competitive meetings against Cypriot opposition. They are undefeated in all nine contests, picking up three wins and six draws.
• Pafos have kept clean sheets in all but one of their last six competitive outings.
• The visitors are targeting their maiden appearance in the main stages of the Champions League. Crvena zvezda, meanwhile, are pushing for a third consecutive appearance in the continental showpiece.
• The Star are the highest-scoring side in the Serbian top flight this term with 16 goals in just four matches.

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Red Star Belgrade vs Pafos Prediction

Red Star have won seven of their eight games this season and are undefeated in competitive action since April. They are undefeated at home since January and will fancy their chances ahead of the midweek clash.

Pafos will also head into Tuesday's game in fine form, having won their last three games. They are underdogs heading into the game and will be keen to secure a positive result ahead of the return leg next week, although they could fall short.

Prediction: Red Star Belgrade 2-0 Pafos

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Red Star Belgrade vs Pafos Betting Tips

Tip 1 - Result: Red Star Belgrade to win

Tip 2 - Goals - Over/under 2.5 - Under 2.5 goals (Each of the visitors' last six matches have produced fewer than 2.5 goals)

Tip 3 - Both teams to score: No (Both sides have found the back of the net in just one of the hosts' last six matches)