Europa League
2012-02-16 - Steaua Bucuresti vs Twente
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football : Uefa Europa League round of 32, 1st leg
Venue: National Arena, Bucuresti
Thursday 16th February – Kickoff time: 22:05 GMT+2
Steaua
As this year’s final contest will be played at the National Arena in Bucharest, the same stadium that will host this match, Steaua’s fans are hoping to see their favorites in the final, but looking at the teams left in the competition, I would say that is pretty much impossible.
Steaua is the only Romanian side left in the competition, despite having a poor season in the domestic league, where they are currently 7th, 11 points behind rivals Dinamo.
As the second part of the championship will only kick off in early March, Ilie Stan took his team to Antalya where Steaua suffered some severe defeats against Mlada Boleslav (2-3) and Concordia Chiajna (1-4), but registered victories over Levski Sofia (2-1), Legia Warsaw (2-1) or Kuban Krasnodar (3-0).
Newcomer Alexandru Chipciu has been ruled out because of an injury, central back Gardos is in the same situation, but he’ll be replaced by another Romanian international, Chiriches. Captain Gabriel Bourceanu is suspended.
Probable Steaua line-up :
Dananae, Geraldo, Chiriches, Brandan
Rusescu, Prepelita, Bicfalvi, Tanase
Nikolici, Tatu
Twente
Steve McClaren denied Steaua a place in the final of the 2005/2006 Uefa Cup with Middlesbrough FC, after an amazing comeback from 0-3 on aggregate.
McClaren met Steaua again in the group stage of the 2009/10 Europa League, this time as Twente’s coach, Mihai Stoichita’s Steaua holding Twente 0-0 in Enschede and 1-1 in Bucharest.
That Twente side was arguably better than the current one, because Twente sold some of their top players at the end of 2010, Cheik Tiote and Bryan Ruiz were sold in England (Newcastle and Wigan) for a total of 20 million euros and Miroslav Stoch signed with Fenerbahce for 6 million.
Twente met another Romanian side in the UCL qualifiers, eliminating Vaslui, winning 2-0 in Arnhem and drawing 0-0 in Piatra Neamt.
McClaren will be without Fernandes, Kuiper, Rendla, Verhoek, Tiendalli and Landzaat, all injured.
Probable Twente line-up :
Cornelisse, Wisgerhof, Douglas, Roslaes
Brama, Fer
Chadli, Janssen, Ola John
De Jong
The Betting Verdict
Steaua has the disadvantage of not playing an official game in 2012, but Zenit were in the same situation and they still managed to win their first leg against Benfica in the UCL.
Twente is coming to Romania after losing their first home game this season to Heracles (2-3), McClaren’s defense being all over the place. However, I don’t think this match will provide so many goals, as Steaua’s main concern will be not to concede a goal.
There will be 50 000 fans tonight, so Steaua should be motivated enough to pull off a positive result, but I don’t think they are strong enough at the moment to eliminate Twente. Steaua may not lose this match, but if Twente can keep it close they should do enough in the second leg to progress.
The Pick :
Steaua Bucuresti 1-1 Twente
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Under 2.5 goals at 1.83 at LadbrokesConfidence: 7/10
