World Cup
2013-03-22 - Hungary vs Romania
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football : World Cup qualifiers
Venue: Ferenc Puskás, Budapest (HUN)
Friday 22th March – Kickoff time: 20:30 GMT+1
Hungary
Hungary is trying to get to the finals stage of a World Cup for the first time in 18 years and their home victory over Turkey last time around really raised their hopes for a second place finish in group D.
Sandor Egervari’s side managed to overturn an early deficit with second half goals from Adam Szalai and Zoltan Gera powering the home side to a 3-1 victory.
Hungary won’t have the support of their home crowd against Romania though, after their request to have the crowd ban sanction provisionally lifted was rejected.
Coach Egervari will have to deal with the absence of WBA’s striker Zoltan Gera who is out through injury. Hungary will have some quality players in the offensive department though, like Balazs Dzsudzsak (Dinamo Moscow), Tamas Hajnal (Stuttgart) and Adam Szalai (Mainz).
Romania
Romania was unable to stop group favorites Netherlands and suffered their first defeat in group D at Bucharest against Louis van Gaal’s men (1-4) in a match that was played in October.
It was Romania’s first wrong step in the group, they have previously beat Turkey in Istanbul which keeps them in the battle for the second place.
Victor Piturca’s men will now try to record a third consecutive away victory (after the ones against Estonia and Turkey) against historical rivals Hungary.
Shalke 04’s striker Ciprian Marica is out with an injury, which means that Adrian Mutu could be the lone striker against Hungary. Victor Piturca is having some problems with the right backs as well, WBA’s central defender Gabriel Tamas may have to play in that position.
The Betting Verdict
With Turkey losing to both Romania and Hungary, this is likely to be the decisive game for the second spot in the group, Netherlands should have no problems securing the first place.
The match would have been much more intense if supporters would have been allowed to attend, which is quite of a disadvantage for the home side. Hungary showed a lot of character overturning a 0-1 deficit against Turkey, but I’m not sure they would have pulled that off behind closed doors.
Romania played a perfect match in Istanbul on their previous travel, they were tight in defense and clinical on counter attack which allowed them to pick up the points. Another performance like that and I can’t see them losing this game.
The Statistics :
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The Pick :
Hungary 0-1 Romania
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
