FC Olimpia Balti v Dinamo Bucuresti
Football: Uefa Europa League: Second qualifying round
Venue: Stadion Zimbru, Chisinau, Moldova
Thursday 15th July – Kickoff time: 19:00 GMT+2

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FC Olimpia Balti

Olimpia was founded in 1993, their home stadium in Balti (capacity: 5000) is not accredited to host international games so they’ll need to travel to Chisinau in order to play this game.

To make an opinion about this club I will share some figures just to see the level of Moldavian football. Their annual budget is below 1 million USD, Alexandru Cheltuiala has the most expensive contract which sums up to 7200 dollars per season. In case they eliminate Dinamo, the players will receive a total bonus of 20 000 USD. Their bonus for reaching this round was 15 000 USD.

In the first qualifying round (1st and 8th July) Olimpia managed to eliminate Khazar Lankaran which was quite a surprise considering the financial differences between the clubs. There were two draws, 0-0 in Chisinau and 1-1 in Azerbaijan which means Olimpia Balti qualified on away goals.

Their best player is Haitian striker Robens, who has 3 caps in the national team of Haiti. He was the player that scored the decisive goal against Lankaran. They also have 3 players from Nigeria and another 3 from Guinea. Their squad has 26 players, only 6 of them being older than 25 which means they lack experience at all not to mention international experience.

Dinamo Bucuresti

Dinamo finished only 6th in the previous season of Romanian Liga 1, which was a major disappointment considering this clubs ambition. With 53 points from 34 games, Dinamo were 16 points behind champions CFR Cluj.

The leadership had to make some decisions, so they signed with coach Ioan Andone, who has Romanian titles with Dinamo and CFR Cluj in his CV. Because the club is facing some financial difficulties they did not managed to make any spectacular transfers this summer, the most important players that joined the club is Juan Pablo Garat from Tigre and Helder Ferreira on-loan from AS Nancy.

Bogdan Lobont finally left Dinamo after a 6 months loan to AS Roma, who decided to transfer him this summer for a fee around 1m euro. There are some rumors launched by Dailymail that says that Dinamo’s top scorer Andrei Cristea (16 goals last season) will join newly promoted Newcastle for a transfer fee around 2m euro.

This is Dinamo’s first official game in the new season, they only played some friendly games, I will only mention the most important of them. On 2nd July Dinamo lost 0-1 to Lokomotiv Moscow, they repeated the bad performance two days later when the “Red Dogs” lost 1-2 to Red Bull Salzburg in Austria.

The Betting Verdict :

There is only one club in Moldova that I consider professional and that is Sheriff Tiraspol which has a great financial support. Olimpia Balti doesn’t have the power and players to play at same level with a team like Dinamo Bucharest.

The Romanians may not pass their best period and I personally do not consider them one of the favorites for winning the league this season, they still have the quality to overpower a team like Olimpia Balti.

Olimpia has two new central defenders, who are not used to play together so Dinamo should take advantage of this fact and score at least two goals. Olimpia will try to hit on counter-attack but I doubt they will be capable to score.

The Pick :

FC Olimpia Balti 0-2 Dinamo Bucuresti

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Main bet : Take Dinamo Bucuresti to win at 1.55 Betsson

Side bet : Try Dinamo Bucuresti HT/FT at 2.30 Bet365