Champions League
2012-11-07 - CFR Cluj vs Galatasaray
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football : UCL group H
Venue: Stadionul Dr. Constantin Rădulescu, Cluj-Napoca
Wednesday 7th November – Kickoff time: 20:45 GMT+1
CFR Cluj
Coach Ioan Andone left CFR Cluj after the 1-1 draw against Galatasaray in Turkey, but it wasn’t the Champions League results that caused his departure.
CFR made a lot of wrong steps in the domestic competition allowing Steaua to build up a solid lead and it seems like the team from Cluj won’t be able to defend their title this season.
However, they do have the change to do something historic for a Romanian side and that would be progressing to the knockout stages of the UCL. Sergio Brito is the new coach and he’ll have the task to take CFR there. The Portuguese coach had an excellent debut in Romania, beating Brasov 5-0 on Saturday
He will have to prepare this match without midfielder Matías Aguirregaray who serves a one-game ban following his red card on matchday three.
There are some injury worries as well, Rafael Bastos (scored twice against Braga on matchday one) was replaced in the first half against Brasov with a muscle injury while Modou Sougou missed out altogether with a similar problem.
Galatasaray
The 1-1 draw in Istanbul on 23 October against CFR Cluj also meant Galatasaray’s first point in the group stages after having lost to Manchester United and Braga previously.
The Turkish title holders have not won on their travels in the competition since September 2002, when they beat Lokomotiv Moscow 2-0, losing eight of their nine away games since then.
Galatasaray also hold a poor record when playing in Romania, they’ve only won one of their six visits there, the 2009/10 Europa League match against Dinamo Bucuresti (3-0).
Felipe Melo is banned after collecting yellow cards in each of the first three games, with Johan Elmander also sitting out matchday four after being sidelined for at least six week with a thigh injury.
The Betting Verdict
At this point CFR’s objective is the third place, that is what they’ve declared recently. CFR wants to avoid a third consecutive bottom place finish in the UCL group stages and with a victory here that could pretty much secure the third spot.
With their Liga 1 season compromised, continuing in a European competition is all that’s left for CFR, so this is the kind of game that will make or break their season. I expect them to be fully determined to get a result here against an opponent that showed its limits on this European campaign.
Galatasaray will play their last chance in this group, any other result than a victory here would be disastrous for the Turkish champions. Coach Fatih Terim spent day and night (literally) at the Florya training base preparing this match.
CFR is probably more dangerous when playing on the road, they don’t feel too comfortable having the initiative, the Romanian side prefers absorbing the pressure and striking on counter attacks. That is probably why all four points collected by CFR were obtained on the road. CFR have won just two of their 10 home games in Europe, not including the qualifiers.
However, you cannot sit back and defend when playing at home, so Galatasaray will probably have more spaces to exploit, which was not the case two weeks ago when CFR defended during the whole 90 minutes.
I think there are a lot of premises to see goals in this one, I expect the Turkish side to push from the beginning, but CFR has the quality to punish them if they are given the chance.
This could go either way in my opinion, both teams could edge this with 2-1 being the most possible outcome (for either team), so I guess it’s safer to bet on the number of goals.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
CFR Cluj 2-1 Galatasaray
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Over 2.5 goals at 2.10 at LadbrokesConfidence: 7/10
