Romanian League
2013-05-19 - Steaua Bucuresti vs Viitorul Constanta
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football : Romania: Liga 1
Venue: "Ghencea", Bucuresti
Sunday 19th May – Kickoff time: 20:30 GMT+1
Steaua Bucuresti (1st W23 D6 L2)
Steaua Bucuresti already secured their 24th title in Romania after an excellent season which was backed by a good run in the Europa League as well (Steaua was eliminated by Chelsea in the quarter finals).
This led coach Claudio Reghecampf to give most of his regulars an early vacation just after last weekend’s derby against Dinamo Bucuresti which was won by Steaua.
This also means that Steaua Bucuresti will play with an experimental squad in the remaining games, just like they did against bottom placed Gloria Bistrita two rounds ago.
Lots of players from the reserves team will be given some playing time to impress, but it’s quite obvious that most of them are not ready to play at this level, not yet.
Viitorul Constanta (14th W6 D12 L13)
Viitorul Constanta is fighting to secure a second consecutive season in the top flight, but they are currently just one point over the drop zone.
They managed to climb over the line thanks to last week’s 2-0 victory over bottom placed Gloria Bistrita, which was their first home win since a 2-1 success over Pandurii obtained back in October.
Viitorul will now travel to Bucharest to face champions Steaua, the team that inflicted their heaviest defeat of the season, a 0-4 home loss back in November.
The team from Constanta will have their top scorer Denis Alibec back available after the striker served a two match suspension.
The Betting Verdict
If we take a look at Steaua’s home record (W14 D1 L0) then the odds for the home win look very attractive, so I’ll try to explain why we’re getting these prices.
First of all Steaua Bucuresti will give some playing time to most of their substitutes and even some from the reserves team, like 17 years old goalkeeper Cojocaru who’ll be among the starters.
Now, the Romanian media has been given a lot of attention to this match because Viitorul Constanta’s owner, former Romanian international Gheorghe Hagi is one of Steaua Bucuresti’s owner’s (Gigi Becali) close associates, they are even related.
The word is that Steaua Bucuresti may not take this match too seriously in order to keep Viitorul Constanta in the first league. In exchange, Steaua will be having priority when they’ll want to sign one of Viitorul’s players, just like it happened a few months ago with talented midfielder Iancu. Steaua is also targeting Viitorul’s top scorer Denis Alibec.
Steaua Bucuresti’s owner Gigi Becali declared that he won’t tell his players not to give their best, but he will send Steaua’s “kid’s team” to face Viitorul in this match, so it remains to be seen if Viitorul Constanta will be able to defeat Steaua’s experimental squad.
It’s a game played under strange circumstances, some may characterize it as dodgy, but if you decide to back Viitorul Constanta here I advise to keep the stakes small.
The Pick :
Steaua Bucuresti 1-2 Viitorul Constanta
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
