Champions League
2012-09-19 - Braga vs CFR Cluj
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football : Champions League group stages
Venue: Estádio Municipal de Braga, Braga
Wednesday 19th September – Kickoff time: 20:45 GMT+1
Braga
Braga begin their second Champions League campaign after eliminating Italian side Udinese on penalties in the play-off round after a 2-2 aggregate draw.
On their previous campaign they’ve lost the opening game to Arsenal in a humiliating 6-0 defeat, but they’ve finished third in the group having recorded three wins.
Even though when we talk about Portuguese football we think about Porto, Benfica or Sporting, Braga made their way among the top teams in Portugal and they even provided seven players for the national squad for the World Cup qualifiers, more than any other club.
This is the first time when Braga meets Romanian opposition, but CFR Cluj shouldn’t be a mystery for the Portuguese side. Braga’s goalkeeper Beto spent the last season on loan at CFR Cluj from Porto before signing with Braga, while CFR has three former Braga players in their squad.
Coach Jose Peseiro, who also spent a season in Romania as Rapid’s boss, has a fully fit squad, which means that we should see the same side that eliminated Udinese in the play-offs.
CFR Cluj
This is CFR Cluj’s third appearance in the Uefa Champions League group stages since 2008 and they’ll be looking to avoid the last position, which would be a first for them.
CFR qualified for the group stages after eliminating Czech and Swiss champions (Slovan Bratislava and FC Basel) with a perfect record, four wins in the two ties. Eliminating Basel could be considered a surprise, the Swiss side progressed to the knockout stages of the competition last season on Manchester United’s expense.
Only two Romanian players could feature against Braga, it is well known that CFR’s strategy for the past 8 years has been to import South American and Portuguese players and it’s turned out to be a successful one since they’ve won three titles in the last six years.
This leads to an interesting situation with four out of five defensive players that will start against Braga will be Portuguese, including ex-Braga goalkeeper Mario Felgueiras and captain Ricardo Cadu (ex-Boavista).
For Cluj, boss Ioan Andone will be without Ciprian Deac, Adam Vass, Bakary Sare, Ronny and Vasile Maftei through injury, but he should have enough solutions to replace them. All these players will be out on long term, but CFR made some last minute signings to fill in the gap.
The Betting Verdict
CFR started their previous two UCL campaign with victories, 1-2 in Rome (2008) and 2-1 at home against Basel (2010), but those remain their only triumphs in the group stages of the most important European competition.
The Romanian side will sit back and will try to hit on counter attack where they have a very fast winger Modou Sougou, who was decisive in Basel scoring both CFR’s second half goals. Greek striker Pantelis Kapetanos is CFR’s top scorer this season, lots of ball will be heading in his direction and hopefully for them he may be able to convert some of those into goals, he doesn’t need many quality balls to score.
I expect Braga to dominate the game, they should have the possession for the most part of the game and it’s hard for me to believe that the visitors will be able to hold them off for long, so CFR will surely need to score to get a results here, 0-0 is not an option in a game like this.
Braga to win should be a safe bet, but all these guys in CFR’s squad that played at some point in Portugal will try to prove a point here and they’ll surely be 100% focused on giving their best against Braga. Most of these players came to Romania because it was an easier way to gain access to the Champions League where they can impress and hope for a transfer in a top league (like Alvara Pereira who was sold to Porto for 4m euros).
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Braga 2-1 CFR Cluj
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Both teams to score at 2.09 at BetssonConfidence: 6/10
