Rapid Bucuresti v Sportul
Football: Romanian Liga 1
Venue: "Giulesti", Bucuresti
Sunday 4th December - Kickoff time: 20:30 GMT+2

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Rapid (3rd W-9 D-4 L-2)

Rapid suffered yet another defeat in their Europa League group, this time at home against Hapoel. With 4 defeats in a row and only 3 points collected, Rapid is likely to finish 4th after a disappointing campaign.

In the Romanian league however, Rapid is doing way better and in case of a victory today they’ll reach 10 wins and will consolidate their third position on the table.

What used to be their strongest points, the defense is starting to commit more mistakes as they normally should which led to the high number of goals conceded in their recent games.

Pandurii just put an end to Rapid’s 12 game undefeated streak (0-3), they also conceded 3 goals on their previous home game from Gaz Metan, a match they eventually won (5-3) and let’s not forget the Europa League defeat against Hapoel (1-3), which means that Rapid conceded 9 goals in their previous 3 games.

Right back Rui Duarte, midfielders Teixeira and Herea are all ruled out for this match after recently suffering some injuries.

Rapid’s home form:

21.11.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 14 Rapid 5 - 3 Gaz Metan Medias
30.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 12 Rapid 3 - 2 Astra Ploiesti
14.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 10 Rapid 4 - 0 Dacia Mioveni
24.09.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 8 Rapid 1 - 1 CFR Cluj
10.09.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 6 Rapid 1 - 1 FC Brasov

Sportul (16th W-2 D-6 L-7)

Sportul surprised everyone with their latest win against one of the top teams from Romania, FC Vaslui, a team that is currently second in their Europa League group which contains teams like Sporting, Lazio and Zurich.

That was actually Sportul’s first home win this season and they are now just two points behind the 14th place, the first one that assures another season in the first league.

I’m not sure if it was a coincidence or not, but despite just taking over the team and didn’t had much time to make significant changes in the squad, the arrival of the new coach Daniel Isaila from Brasov had a positive impact.

Sportul is continuing their poor run on their travels however, they’ve already lost 5 games this season and only collected 4 points.

Sportul’s away record:

18.11.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 14 Otelul Galati 1 - 0 Sportul Studentesc
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

The betting verdict

Rapid has been dominant at home, but at the mid-season they already conceded the same amount of goals that they did in the previous season. However, I don’t think that their record will suffer any negative changes after this match against an opposition that rarely collects any points on their travels.

The odds for a home win are not attractive at all, so I’ll suggest taking a look at the goals market where both teams to score is priced at 2.63, which is good value considering the recent stats. Rapid conceded at least one goal in 4 of their previous 5 home games, while Sportul despite losing most of them, only failed to score against Otelul Galati if we look at their last 5 away games.

The Pick :

Rapid Bucuresti 3-1 Sportul Studentesc

FIXED ODDS BETTING :

Take Both teams to score at 2.63 Bet365
Confidence: 5/10