FCM Targu Mures v Universitatea Cluj
Football: Romania: Liga 1
Venue: Stadion Trans-sil, Targu Mures
Monday 19th September - Kickoff time: 19:00 GMT+2

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FCM Targu Mures (16th W-1 D-2 L-3)

Looking at the names from their squad, I would have expected Targu Mures to be higher on the table, but as their coach admitted, the lack of homogeneity had cost them many points.

In the summer transfer period, FCM focused on signing players with lots of games in Liga 1 like Sorin Ghionea (ex-Steaua), Robert Ilyes (ex-Brasov) or Adrian Iencsi (ex-Rapid), all well into their thirties. All these players brought experience to the squad, but coach Ioan Ovidiu Sabau had to sacrifice some aspects of their game, so not having fast enough players made them collect only one point from away games, only scoring one goal in three games.

Their only victory came in the match against newly-promoted CS Mioveni and they could have built on that in the next home game, but conceded a late goal from Astra Ploiesti that denied them the second victory in this season.

FCM has not only lost 2 points in that game, but they will also have to play without midfielder Victoras Astafei for the next two months.

Universitatea Cluj (5th W-3 D-2 L-1)

Universitatea’s ambitions to reach a European spot at the end of this season suffered an important blow last weekend, when they were equalized in the dying minutes of the match against bottom-placed Concordia Chiajna.

Despite that counter-performance, Universitatea sits in the 5th position and they could close the gap to only 2 points from the leader if they will be able to get a win from Targu Mures.

Universitatea has the same problem their opponents have, they are rather modest on away games, not having players that could carry on dangerous counter-attacks, their midfielders are too static I would say. Talking of midfield, Nasser Menassel has been ruled out after suffering an injury at training.

The betting verdict

It’s hard to call which team will win this game, but it has all the ingredients to finish with no more than two goals scored. Both teams are static, there won’t be an alert rhythm during this match and neither it will be a joy to watch.

In the previous season both games between these two finished with less than 3 goals scored. Both teams have been involved in games that only produced 13 goals in 6 matches, which is an average of 2.2 goals/match.

The Pick :

FCM Targu Mures 1-0 Universitatea Cluj

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Under 2.5 goals at 1.70 Victor Chandler
Confidence: 7/10