Romania v Albania
Football: Euro 2012 qualifiers - Round 1
Venue: Ceahlaul, Piatra-Neamt, Romania
Friday 3rd September – Kickoff time: 21:00 GMT+2

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Romania (FIFA rank: 42)

After failing to qualify for 2010 World Cup, the Romanian national football team starts the qualifying campaign for Euro 2012 against Albania. Romania will also play their second game next week in Belarus so they are aiming to obtain 6 points from these games before the decisive games against France and Bosnia.

At a first look, in a group with Romania, Bosnia, Belarus, Albania and Luxembourg, France are great favorites for winning the group but I don't think this campaign will be a walk in the park for them. Romania drew against France in their previous 3 official games (one at Euro 2008 and the other two in the World Cup 2010 qualifiers), while Bosnia and Belarus have some interesting players in their squad and a great potential for building some solid teams in the near future.

Romania had a disastrous qualifying campaign for the World Cup 2010, but since then a lot changed, including the head coach. Razvan Lucescu will have the responsibility of taking Romania to the Euro 2012 final stage and he is eager to start the campaign with a positive result.

Romania has good memories in games against Albania, they met in November 2007, when they smashed Albani with 6-1 in a game counting for Euro 2008 qualifyiers.

Two players from Steaua Bucuresti will miss this match due to some recent injuries, Cristian Tanase and Mihai Radut. They will be replaced with two players from Rapid Bucuresti, Mihai Roman and Costin Lazar which will live up to the expectations in my opinion, this will not be a problem for Razvan Lucescu. However, Adrian Mutu is still absent due to his suspension that has not expired yet.

Romania last 6 results:
2010-08-11 Turkey 2-0 Romania FRIENDLY
2010-06-05 Romania 3-0 Honduras FRIENDLY
2010-06-02 Romania 0-1 F.Y.R. Macedonia FRIENDLY
2010-05-29 Ukraine 3-2 Romania FRIENDLY
2010-03-03 Romania 0-2 Israel FRIENDLY
2009-11-14 Poland 0-1 Romania FRIENDLY

Albania (FIFA rank: 70)

Albania never qualified for a European or World Cup final stage since their first involvement in a competition like these in 1964.

There is a great probability that they won’t do it this time either, if everything goes normally they should finish 5th, above Luxembourg.

Playing in a 4-4-1-1 system with accent on an organized defensive, they managed to cause a few surprise in the World Cup 2010 qualifiers where they drew against Portugal and Sweden (0-0 on both occasions). In fact, they only scored one goal in 6 away games in that campaign, in the 4-1 loss against Sweden.

They do not excel individually, the most important players would be Lorik Cana, a defensive midfielder who plays for Galatasaray and striker Erjon Bogdani who plays in Italy for Cesena. Albania has an ambitious coach from Croatia, named Josip Kuze, who brought some young talents from the Under 21 squad to freshen up the squad.

Albania last 6 results :
2010-08-11 Albania 1-0 Uzbekistan FRIENDLY
2010-06-02 Albania 1-0 Andorra FRIENDLY
2010-05-25 Montenegro 0-1 Albania FRIENDLY
2010-03-03 Albania 1-0 Northern Ireland FRIENDLY
2009-11-14 Estonia 0-0 Albania FRIENDLY
2009-10-14 Sweden 4-1 Albania WCQ, UEFA

Head to Head

2007-11-21 Romania 6 - 1 Albania EURO Q
2006-09-06 Albania 0 - 2 Romania EURO Q
1987-10-28 Albania 0 - 1 Romania EURO Q
1987-03-25 Romania 5 - 1 Albania EURO Q

The Betting Verdict :

Many consider that the Albanian team that lost 6-1 to Romania in 2007 was stronger than the current national team of Albania, so the winner should not be questionable in this game. However let's not forget Romania's first match in the World Cup 2010 qualifiers when they inexplicably lost at home to Lithuania 0-3.

It's hard to believe the situation will repeat, if Romania scores first before the 60th minute than they will have no problem winning it by 2 or more goals. In the other case, Albania is expected to play with an overcrowded defense which could bring Romania in a difficult situation if they fail to score early in the game.

The difference in class between the two teams is visible, Romania needs to take all three points here before a difficult match in Belarus next week so any other result than a win will be considered a huge disappointment.

Striker Daniel Niculae showed an excellent form in the beginning of the season, scoring two goals in two games for AS Monaco, while Cristian Chivu from Internazionale Milano is expected to inspire security in the defensive compartment where we could also see Gabriel Tamas from WBA.

The Statistics :

The Pick :

Romania 2-0 Albania

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Albania not to score at 1.78 Unibet
Confidence 8/10

HANDICAP BETTING :

Take Romania -1.5 AH at 2.02 Pinnacle
Confidence 7/10