Otelul Galati vs Sportul Studentesc
Football: Romanian Liga 1
Venue: "Otelul", Galati
Friday 23th September - Kickoff time: 20:15 GMT+2

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Otelul Galati (8th W-6 D-3 L-4)

Otelul will be hosting Sportul Studentesc Friday, mainly because they’ll be playing in the UCL group stages against Basel next week. Despite their poor run in the UCL, Otelul showed some signs of recovery in the domestic league lately, collecting maximum points from the previous three games.

Their home record is rather disappointing this season, having won the least points from the top 10 teams from the league. In six home games Otelul only managed to score three times on three different occasions.

These figures are surprising considering their excellent home results in the previous season, they were one of the two teams that haven’t lost a game and only conceded 12 goals in 17 games.

Otelul’s home record:

28.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 12 Otelul Galati 1 - 0 Gaz Metan Medias
14.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 10 Otelul Galati 1 - 1 Astra Ploiesti
23.09.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 8 Otelul Galati 0 - 0 Dacia Mioveni
09.09.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 6 Otelul Galati 0 - 4 CFR Cluj
20.08.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 4 Otelul Galati 1 - 0 FC Brasov

Sportul (15th W-1 D-6 L-6)

Sportul only won one game this season which was actually their first one, which was played at the end of July against a newly promoted, Concordia Chiajna.

That is probably the reason behind their owner’s decision to sack Gheorghe Multescu and appoint Brasov’s ex-coach, Daniel Isaila. The new coach wasn’t too lucky at his debut, losing the home game against Universitatea Cluj, a match that ended 2-4.

Despite all these results and the fact that they conceded 25 goals so far, which makes their defense the worst from the league, Sportul is 15th on the table out of 18. Luckily for them, there are some newly promoted teams that play even worse.

Sportul’s away record:

21.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 11 Gaz Metan Medias 3 - 1 Sportul Studentesc
30.09.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 9 Astra Ploiesti 2 - 2 Sportul Studentesc
16.09.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 7 Dacia Mioveni 2 - 1 Sportul Studentesc
26.08.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 5 CFR Cluj 6 - 1 Sportul Studentesc
15.08.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 3 FC Brasov 1 - 0 Sportul Studentesc

The betting verdict

Each player from Otelul that had an involvement in their previous season’s run has been awarded with 100 000 euro as a bonus for winning the title. Not receiving that money until now has been the cause of many arguments at the club, but with that all sorted out I figure that the players should keep their mind on football from now on and continue their recent performances.

Otelul has been extremely solid on their home games in the previous season and there hasn’t been many changes in the squad since then, so I can’t see why they wouldn’t get back on track when playing at home, especially when meeting Sportul, an opponent that are quite poor on their travels.

Otelul won 6 games this season, 5 of them by only one goal margin, so backing the home team would be the obvious choice on this one, but those who are looking for value should take Otelul to win by one goal margin.

The Pick :

Otelul Galati 1-0 Sportul Studentesc

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Otelul to win at 1.44 Pinnacle
Confidence: 8/10

Try Otelul to win by one goal margin at 3.1 Bet365
Confidence: 4/10