Romania – Turkey

Romania and Turkey will meet in Cluj for an International Friendly match, with both teams coming after disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign.

Romania never had a chance to qualify to the 2018 World Cup, being poor right from the start and finishing 4th in a group which also featured Poland, Denmark or Montenegro. The Romanians sacked Cristoph Daum two games before the end of the qualifiers and brought in Cosmin Contra from Dinamo Bucharest as a replacement, a highly dubious decision. In the two games with Contra at helm, Romania defeated Kazakhstan 3-1 and drew 1-1 in Denmark.

Turkey appointed Romanian manager Mircea Lucescu towards the end of the qualifiers in order to push for a playoff position, but they failed miserably, and finished 4th in their group behind Iceland, Croatia and Ukraine. Lucescu won just once in his first 4 games in charge, and ended the qualies with a 0-3 home loss to Iceland and a 2-2 draw in Finland.

Bet on Romania vs. Turkey and claim your 100% (100 Eur) freebet at Ohmbet now!

Team news & lineups:

Romania will miss three important players (Marin, Benzar and Stancu), while Turkey will miss Mor and possibly Ayhan. The Turks however have not called up some of their more experienced players, in an attempt to grow a younger team for the next qualifiers. The projected lineups below are obviously just orientative, as it`s impossible to know how the two managers will mix it up in a friendly like this.

Romania: Tatarusanu – Sapunaru, Chiriches, Grigore, Ganea – Pintilii, Hoban – Tanase, Baluta, Chipciu – Andone

Turkey: Babacan – Tufan, Toprak, Soyuncu, Koybasi – Inan, Yokuslu – Yazici, Ozyakup, Calhanoglu – Tosun

Both teams are attempting to build for the next qualifying campaign, and Turkey in particular will have a changed roster, with many of the old players being left out. They are the better side, but with the new roster and with Romania having home court advantage, you can`t really say anybody is a favorite here.

The match has a really friendly feel to it. Well, it is a friendly, but with both sides trying to rebuild and with Mircea Lucescu returning to Romania as an opponent, it feels like it will all be in good fun, and the result won`t matter one bit.

Look for a match played in the second gear, with nobody caring much, and the players more focused to avoid injuries at a crucial moment in the club football season.

I can see a boring draw here, with both teams congratulating themselves and wishing good luck to one another at the end. Of course, the draw always presents extra risk, but I would surprised to hear anybody argue that it`s not worth a shot here with low – medium stakes. The bet definitely makes a lot of sense to me. Prediction: Romania – Turkey 0-0.

Pick: Draw
Odds: 3.23 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 4
Possible profit: 8.92
Event date: 9 November