Pandurii Tg Jiu vs Rapid Bucuresti
Football: Romanian Liga 1
Venue: "Tudor Vladimirescu", Tg Jiu
Saturday 26th November - Kickoff time: 16:00 GMT+2

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Pandurii (9th W-6 D-4 L-4)

Pandurii were not able to win any of their last 3 fixtures which is surprising considering that they are playing a quality, offensive football. They almost came back with a point from Vaslui, against a team that rarely drops points at home, but this time they needed a 93th minute goal to collect all three points.

Coach Petre Grigoras’s work is being highly appreciated and he is in talks for taking over Steaua Bucuresti in the winter break. This could be a great opportunity for him, but having Gigi Becali as a boss could be a challenge as well.

Pandurii has a good home record this season, they won 5 games and lost 2, scoring 12 goals and conceding only 5. They caused CFR Cluj’s only away defeat and also beat the other team from Cluj, Universitatea.

Midfielders Cosmin Bacila and Marian Pleasca are still recovering after suffering some severe injuries in the beginning of the season.

Pandurii’s home form:

06.11.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 13 Pandurii Tg. Jiu 0 - 1 Otelul Galati
21.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 11 Pandurii Tg. Jiu 1 - 0 U Cluj
17.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 10 Pandurii Tg. Jiu 1 - 0 Gaz Metan Medias
26.09.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 8 Pandurii Tg. Jiu 1 - 2 Astra Ploiesti
12.09.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 6 Pandurii Tg. Jiu 5 - 1 Dacia Mioveni

Rapid Bucuresti (2nd W-9 D-4 L-1)

Despite registering a poor run in the Europa League group stages, Rapid is in far better shape in the Romanian league where they are currently second, two points behind Dinamo.

Rapid and Dinamo are the only teams that lost no more than once this season, both losing the one game on one of their travels. Despite only scoring 6 goals, Rapid won 4 games on the road, which makes them the second best from the league, behind Dinamo of course.

Rapid showed a lot of character in their previous match when they were 0-2 down at home against Gaz Metan Medias, but ended up winning the game with an impressive 5-3.

Daniel Pancu, the 34 year old striker is in great form, he scored 6 goals this season, the same number of goals that attacking midfielder Ovidiu Herea scored. These two combined scored half of Rapid’s goals.

Left back Bozovic was sent off in the match against Gaz Metan so he will be replaced by Ezequias for this match.

Rapid’s away form:

7.11.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 13 FCM Târgu-Mureş 0 - 2 Rapid
24.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 11 Steaua 0 - 0 Rapid
02.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 9 Vointa Sibiu 0 - 1 Rapid
18.09.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 7 Dinamo 0 - 0 Rapid
28.08.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 5 Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt 1 - 2 Rapid

The betting verdict

Pandurii dominated every opponent that travelled to Targu Jiu this season even those which ended up defeating them. This time however, they’ll face Rapid, a team that only conceded 3 goals in 7 away games, which is an average of less than 0.5 goals conceded per match.

In fact, 6 of Rapid’s 7 away games ended with less than three goals scored, which makes me consider the under 2.5 goals as the best choice for this match.

From the previous 11 games between these two, only one ended with more than two goals scored, Rapid’s victory in 2007.

To back it up even more, Pandurii’s last 3 home games ended with less than 2 goals scored. Even though the price is not great I would say that it’s very likely to a see low scoring match.

The Pick :

Pandurii 1-0 Rapid Bucuresti

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Under 2.5 goals at 1.67 Victor Chandler
Confidence: 8/10