Romanian League
2012-03-21 - Sportul Studentesc vs CFR Cluj
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football : Romania : Liga 1
Venue: "Regie", Bucuresti
Wednesday 21th March – Kickoff time: 15:30 GMT+2
Sportul Studentesc (13th W-5 D-8 L-8)
Sportul pulled off a huge result on Sunday, getting the better of Dinamo Bucuresti. Sportul’s performance is even more impressive considering that they’ve played on Dinamo’s ground and they played against the leaders at that moment. After this match Dinamo lost the lead of Liga 1 to CFR Cluj.
Dinamo took the lead just two minutes into the match and everything was going against the plan for the Red Dogs, there were all premises for a comfortable win, but “The Students” were not intimidated by the name of their opponents and scored 3 to record cause a huge upset.
This is the difference between the Premier League or La Liga and the Romanian League. When Manchester plays Wigan at Old Trafford you can probably find the home win for 1.2, which were the odds for Dinamo’s victory as well. The difference is that Manchester will record a comfortable win (95% of the time), while Dinamo will lose 2-3 games like this in a season.
Suprisingly, Sportul is the only team that won all three games since the championship resumed after the winter break. Two of those games were on the road.
Sportul’s home record:
11.03.2012 Liga 1 Etapa 20 Sportul Studentesc 2 - 1 FC Brasov
17.12.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 18 Sportul Studentesc 2 - 2 Concordia
11.12.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 17 Sportul Studentesc 1 - 1 Petrolul Ploiesti
26.11.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 15 Sportul Studentesc 1 - 0 FC Vaslui
06.11.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 13 Sportul Studentesc 2 - 4 U Cluj
CFR Cluj (1st W-14 D-4 L-3)
The current CFR Cluj is starting to remind me to the team that won the championship for the first time in this club’s history (2007-08), they have a solid squad, but even when they play bad they still manage to collect all points.
A defensive error or a goal from an individual effort always occurs and allows them to put their noses in front, followed by an Italian style catenaccio, which is not what the fans are expecting but it’s efficient most of the time.
Last season CFR only won 3 games on the road, however, this season they seem to have found the solutions to bring more points from their travels. They’ve collected 21 so far winning 6 games and only losing once.
CFR’s away record:
09.03.2012 Liga 1 Etapa 20 Gaz Metan Medias 1 - 1 CFR Cluj
17.12.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 18 Astra Ploiesti 0 - 1 CFR Cluj
10.12.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 17 Steaua 1 - 1 CFR Cluj
27.11.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 15 Vointa Sibiu 0 - 1 CFR Cluj
31.10.2011 Liga 1 Etapa 12 FC Brasov 1 - 2 CFR Cluj
The Betting Verdict
CFR is the better team on paper, no question about that, but since 2004 CFR never managed to win in Bucharest against Sportul Studentesc. There were two Sportul victories and a draw.
Last season CFR suffered one of the most severe defeats of their recent history against Sportul, “The Students” put 3 goals past them in an impressive 3-0 victory.
CFR could edge this having more experience and they are of course the leaders at the moment, but I think there is value backing Sportul. They are on a 3 match winning streak and playing excellent at the moment, CFR may drop some important points here if they won’t play at their best.
The Pick :
Sportul Studentesc 1-1 CFR Cluj
Gooner’s Statistical Value Bet
