Champions League
2012-08-08 - Slovan Liberec vs CFR Cluj
A Sports Betting Pick by ROzsolt
Football : Champions League second qualifying round, leg 2
Venue: U Nisy - Liberec
Wednesday 8th August – Kickoff time: 20:00 GMT+2
Slovan Liberec (Czech Republic)
Slovan Liberec has a perfect record after two games in the Czech league, but they have a lot of work to do in order to qualify for the UCL play-offs.
The Czech side lost the first leg in Romania after a rather disappointing performance. Slovan is lucky to have lost by only one goal, their hopes are still alive, but they’ll need to come up with something else if they want to beat this CFR side.
A victory may not be enough for them, the 1-0 sends the match to extra-time but any other win by one goal is good enough for CFR to qualify. With that in mind Slovan will probably try to take the initiative and score as early as possible.
Their emblematic 36 years old midfielder Jiri Stejner has been ruled out with medical issues and he will be out for at least 6 weeks.
CFR Cluj (Romania)
After a sloppy start in Liga 1, CFR Cluj is now back to their winning ways defeating both Slovan Liberec in the CL (1-0) and probably their most important rival to another Liga 1 title, Vaslui on Saturday (3-0).
These two were the best performances I’ve seen from CFR in a while, I can’t remember them dominating the way they did in games of this importance. They’ve been quite wasteful in both occasions, but the good news is that they are creating chances more often than usually.
The only bad news is that winger Ciprian Deac suffered a serious injury in the match against Vaslui and will be out for approximately 2 months, but there are plenty of players who could successfully replace him.
The Betting Verdict
The 1-0 victory in the first leg gives CFR an important advantage ahead of this game, they can play on counter-attack against a side that needs to take chances in order to keep their hopes alive.
CFR will use two fast wingers, Nicoara and Sougou and they could be the key in this match. They’ll have more spaces than usually, it will be up to them to create danger and I think they have the quality to do so.
There are two scenarios here, Slovan scoring first in which case things could get interesting, but I think the hosts have enough quality to get back in the game. If CFR scores the tie is practically over, Slovan is not a side that could score three times in a match like this.
For CFR the best scenario would be to score first in which case they could even record another victory.
The Pick :
Slovan Liberec 1-1 CFR Cluj
HANDICAP BETTING TIP :
Take CFR Cluj on AH +0.25 at 2.13 at PinnacleConfidence: 7/10
