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Preliminary round of the Champions league. The winner goes to another round, the loser does not participate further in Champions League or Europa League. The winner of this tie has a guaranteed participation further, if they lose into the next round they go to EL, if they win the next round they continue into CL.
This is the weakest Steaua team i have seen in the last 3 years. A lot of players have left: in the winter it was Szukala, Sanmartean and Keseru, now Tanase, Rusescu, Prepelita, Arlauskis, Latovlevici. Not all of them were irreplaceable and not all of them were part of the current manager’s plan, but they were still important players. Tucudean is out because he did not accept a salary reduction. Steaua bough Tade, goalscorer of last season, he is on the UEFA list and will play today. This changes things, a lot, in favor of Steaua, because upfront they were really suffering, but even so, i like Trencin in this one.
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They are the Slovak champions. There is nothing truly Slovak about them. Their game plan is modern and dynamic, they have players from all over the world, their president is a dutch/chinese business man. A lot of people consider Trencin to be a smaller Ajax / FC Porto for their great scouting abilities and youth programs. They always sell 4-5 players and buy other ones, at least just as good as the ones that left.
An incredible thing is that although they are Slovak champions (and finished 2nd the season before) they have not even 1 player with 1 selection in the Slovak National Team.
And the Slovak NT is not something special. Meanwhile, Steaua has really a lot of players that are in the NT team circuit, and even others that played for Steaua, played for their NT (like Szukala and Varela).
The match will not be played in Trencin’s stadium which will be a big disadvantage, because they will play on natural grass instead of artificial. The quality of the teams is hard to assess, just like in any other european tie, but i think Trencin is the better team with the better coach. The only thing Steaua has on their side is experience. And maybe the natural field factor.
No importat missings for either team.
I expect Trencin to surprise Steaua with a low scoring win. I am picking Trencin to win with a + 0 asian handicap (draw no bet).
Pick: Trencin (+0 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 2.10 @ Bet365
Stake: 8
Possible profit: 8.80
Event date: 14 July
