AEK Larnaca v Steaua Bucuresti
Football: Europa League Group J
Venue: "GSP", Nicosia
Thursday 29th August – Kickoff time: 20:00 GMT+2

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AEK Larnaca

AEK suffered a defeat in their first match from Europa League group J, Mohammad Ghadir’s second half header earning the victory for Israeli champions Maccabi Haifa.

Stats were cruel with AEK, they only had two attempts on target compared to Maccabi’s 9 attempts, so their status as the outsider of the group has been confirmed in their first match.

Larnaca are unbeaten in six European home games (five wins and a draw) but all of them obtained in qualifying rounds, this being AEK Larnaca’s first appearance in the group stages of a European competition.

AEK has some decent players by Cyprus standards like De Cler or captain Kevin Hofland, both played for Feyenoord a few years ago, but forward Njongo Priso from Cameroon seems to be the biggest threat for Steaua.

Steaua Bucuresti

Steaua made their debut in this group against favorites Shalke 04, but they couldn’t be separated as the match finished 0-0 with Steaua not having any attempts on target during the 90 minutes.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar came closest to scoring, but he only found the crossbar in the way of his second-half attempt. Shalke dominated, but they left the impression that they were not pushing 100% and the draw was a satisfactory result considering that they were playing away from home.

Steaua looks like having another awful season, sitting on the 9th place only collecting 11 points from 8 games, 8 points less than leader and rivals Dinamo Bucuresti. This is actually the worst start of a season that Steaua had since 1974.

The Romanians have not won in eight UEFA away games ( 4 draws and 4 defeats) since a 2-1 Europa League play-off win at Saint Patrick’s Athletic.

The betting verdict

Steaua is not a team that concedes many goals, but their main problem is that they do not have a playmaker, which makes their game to seem chaotic from time to time.

It’s not an easy job to win in Cyprus lately, but the home advantage could have less significance in this game because the match will be played in Nicosia, not Larnaca.

There is a lot of pressure on Steaua and coach Ronny Levy after these poor results from the beginning of the season, so Steaua could not afford to lose here so they might not risk too much despite being considered favorites in this game. I think it will be a tight game that could hardly produce more than two goals.

The Pick :

AEK Larnaca 0-1 Steaua Bucuresti

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Under 2.5 goals to be scored at 1.70 Victor Chandler
Confidence: 8/10