Romanian League:Steaua Bucuresti vs Otelul Galati

Romanian League
            2010-03-12 – Steaua Bucuresti v Otelul Galati
            Sports Betting Preview by ROzsolt
            Steaua Bucuresti – Otelul Galati
            Football : Romania : Liga 1
            “Ghencea” stadium, Bucharest
            Friday 12 March 2010, Kickoff: 20:30 GMT +2

            Steaua Bucuresti (3rd) 10W 6D 4L 29-20

            Steaua accumulated only 2 points from the last three games, but two
            of them were on the road and were against CFR Cluj and Unirea
            Urziceni, top 2 teams on the table. The last time they started the
            second part of the championship this bad was in 1979-1980, when they
            registered a negative record of 5 draws and 1 defeat in 6 games.

            The reason for such a bad start this season is the central
            defenders, Zhirko Zhelev and Alex Tudose, who never played together
            before and are considered the weak point of the team. Steaua
            conceded 6 goals in these 3 games.

            They have a poor record considering their home games, only 15 points
            in 10 games but one of the reason for this negative performance may
            be the fact that they lost the support of their fans, and the battle
            between the club owner and the fans amplified with the decision of
            the club to close a sector of the stadium, where the Ultras SUD used
            to stay.

            The Romanian giants are under a tremendous pressure, if they fail to
            win this game, there is a high probability that their coach, Mihai
            Stoichita could leave the team, fact admitted by him.

            Steaua has 7 players who may miss the next match against Dinamo
            Bucuresti if they receive a yellow card, and knowing that against
            Dinamo is the most important match of a season, they cannot afford
            to play very aggressive.

            Romeo Surdu and Bogdan Stancu (both forwards) will miss this match
            due to some late time injuries, also attacking-midfielder Cristian
            Tanase is recovering after an injury and he is expected to play only
            next stage, against Dinamo, while left-back Ifeanyi Emeghara is
            still unavailable after a long injury.

            Steaua Bucuresti Squad :
            Zapata – Golanski, Tall, Jelev, Art. Karamyan – Szekely, Ov. Petre,
            Plesan, Nicolita – Kapetanos, Arm. Karamyan

            Last 5 Steaua Bucuresti home results :
            20.02.2010 Liga 1 Etapa 18 Steaua 1-3 Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt
            13.12.2009 Liga 1 Etapa 17 Steaua 3-2 International Curtea de Arges
            29.11.2009 Liga 1 Etapa 15 Steaua 2-1 FC Vaslui
            09.11.2009 Liga 1 Etapa 13 Steaua 2-0 Apulum Alba Iulia
            25.10.2009 Liga 1 Etapa 11 Steaua 1-1 Rapid
            Otelul Galati (9th) 9W 4D 7L 24-24

            Otelul made a huge surprise last stage, winning against leader, CFR
            Cluj, making it their 4th victory in a row. This streak lead them to
            just 4 points behind a Europa League spot, which would be a
            tremendous performance for this team, which has a small budget.

            The recent success could be explained by the professionalism of
            their coach, Dorinel Munteanu, who gave his team a winning mentality
            that they did not had before. Munteanu coached Steaua in their last
            UCL campaign (2008-2009) but he left the team after an argument with
            the owner. So he has a personal revenge to take against the team
            that launched him in the European football when he was a player.

            Otelul Galati is the only team that has maximum points from these
            last 3 games so they travel to Bucharest with a good morale, even if
            their last victory against Steaua in Ghencea stadium was 13 years
            ago.

            Otelul has a record of 4-1-4 in away games, scoring 9 goals and
            conceding 12.

            They have a young team, with an average of 24.5 years of their first
            11, mostly players grown in their own academy.

            Otelul Galati Squad :
            Grahovac – Salagean, Perendija, Costin, Rapa – Giurgiu, Neagu –
            Ochirosii, Paraschiv, Antal – Pena

            Last 5 Otelul Galati away results :
            26.02.2010 Liga 1 Etapa 19 Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt 0-1 Otelul Galati
            06.12.2009 Liga 1 Etapa 16 FC Vaslui 1-1 Otelul Galati
            20.11.2009 Liga 1 Etapa 14 Apulum Alba Iulia 3-1 Otelul Galati
            01.11.2009 Liga 1 Etapa 12 Rapid 3-0 Otelul Galati
            18.10.2009 Liga 1 Etapa 10 Gloria Bistrita 2-1 Otelul Galati
            The Betting Verdict :

            With Steaua desperately needing the points and Otelul playing a
            good, attacking football there are many ingredients for a match with
            more than two goals.

            I am expecting Otelul to take advantage of Steaua’s defensive
            fragility and score at least once and if they are able to kepp a
            clean sheet in the first 30 minutes then there is a good chance they
            could go away with at least one point.
            FIXED ODDS BETTING :
            Consider over 2.5 goals @ 1.95
            HANDICAP BETTING :
            Take Otelul AH +1.25 @ 1.85 Bet365 (main bet)