Europa League
2011-08-18 - Steaua Bucuresti vs CSKA Sofia
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football: Europa League Play-offs, First Leg
Venue: "Dr. Constantin Radulescu", Cluj
Thursday 18th August – Kickoff time: 20:30 GMT+2
Steaua Bucuresti (Romania)
With their morale boosted after an important win against Universitatea Cluj in the championship, Steaua took off to Cluj, the place where they’ll host CSKA Sofia from Bulgaria.
As usual, Steaua transferred a lot of players in the summer transfer period, some of them will improve the quality of their game a lot in my opinion, the only problem is that they need time. Alexandru Bourceanu a defensive midfielder who is also a Romanian international was brought from FC Timisoara, while also new signings Mihai Costea and Brazilian Leandro Tatu will be Steaua’s men in front.
Both strikers made a good impression in the beginning of the season, scoring 2 goals each, more than half of Steaua’s total goals. Their goals contributed to Steaua’s second position on the table, collecting 7 points from three games.
A few facts about Steaua’s European performances: since the season 2004-2005, Steaua qualified every year to at least the group stages of either Uefa Cup, Europa League or Champions League. This means that during this interval Steaua never lost in the play-offs despite having opponents like Standard Liege and Galatasaray in the UCL or Grasshoppers Zurich (2010), St Patrick’s (2009) and even CSKA Sofia (2004), their current opponents, a tie that Steaua won with 4-3 on aggregate.
Steaua was minutes close qualify from the previous Europa League’s group stage, where they played against Liverpool, Napoli and Utrecht. Steaua was second before the last match against Napoli in Italy and a draw would have qualified them, but Cavani scored a 90th minute goal that gave the Italians the ticket trough.
CSKA Sofia (Bulgaria)
CSKA is the best performing Bulgarian football club based on the all-time national statistics, having won 31 titles and 19 national cups. However, in the previous three seasons CSKA has not won any title, only a Bulgarian Cup in 2011.
The Reds started off the new season with a victory against Litex Loveci in the Bulgarian Supercup. For Ianis Zicu, probably their most important signing this summer, who came from FC Timisoara (Romania) scored his first goal for CSKA in that game. He also scored in both league games that followed, contributing to CSKA’s victories.
An interesting fact about CSKA is that they had 5 different coaches in 2010, including their current manager, Milen Radukanov.
Delev, Michel Platini (that is his actual name) and Zicu will lead their attack, a trio that could gave Steaua some troubles. CSKA suffered a huge blow when their best defender Popov suffered a severe injury and will be out for at least 6 months.
CSKA qualified for the group stage of the Europa Leagua in the previous season, but finished last in a group with Porto, Besiktas and Rapid Wien, only collecting 3 points.
The betting verdict
There is a well known rivalry against Romania and Bulgaria, including club football, so it should be an interesting tie against the most famous teams from the two countries.
I think that at this moment Romanian club football is superior to the Bulgarian, considering the performances of the teams that the two countries give in European competitions. Currently, there are 6 Romanian clubs still involved in European competitions, Otelul Galati is qualified for the UCL group stage and there are 5 others teams that will play in the Europa League play-offs. On the other hand, only CSKA Sofia and Litex Lovech are still playing in the Europa League, Lokomotiv and Levski Sofia have already been eliminated.
I think CSKA would be pleased with a draw in this game or even a narrow defeat that would give them the chance to decide the tie in the second leg. Steaua always managed to live up to the expectations in games with this kind of importance and this season they seem to have the quality to fight for the title in Romania and make a good run in the Europa League as well.
The Pick :
Steaua Bucuresti 2-1 CSKA Sofia
BEST BETTING TIP :
Take Steaua Bucuresti to win at 1.91 EurobetConfidence: 7/10
