Scouting Romania

• Gaz Metan Medias – Rapid Bucharest

Tricky match for Rapid, who managed to put behind the 2-3 loss against Dinamo with a 2-0 win at home, against Gloria Bistrita, but they’re facing one of the best organized teams in the league, who’s yet to be defeated and sits comfortably in third place. The problem for Gaz Metan is the depth of the squad and I am quite sure that losing Todea (central midfielder, suspended), Buchta (keeper, injured) Markovic (central/left defender, injured) will affect the team’s performance. All are top players and cover defensive positions, so I expect Rapid to take advantage of this, as they will only miss left winger Cesinha and have a good, offensive team, even though forwards Sburlea, Cassio and Raduta struggled to deliver upfront. We should see a defensive looking home team, which will sit back and try and strike on counters, through a very quick and skilfull offensive quartet: Parvulescu – Eric – Munteanu – Aganovic.

• Dinamo – Universitatea Cluj

Easy one for those who like to bet and do follow Romanian football, but the very low odds on the home team makes this less interesting. Of course, there was a “media battle” during this week, as a response to the public’s expectations from this game, but Dinamo should take the points. Universitatea is currently owned by a former shareholder at Dinamo, coached by a former Dinamo player and has bought several players from the Red Dogs (Niculescu, Bostina, Matache, Lemnaru), not to mention “the sympathy” between the two clubs, which goes a looong way back. The experienced bettors on the Romanian league will risk a buck on a high scoring game, on both teams to score, but mainly on a victory by just one goal from the home team. My advice: avoid the game! Completely! It’s not even worth to watch.