Steaua – Ceahlaul

Steaua Bucharest will meet Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt in the 4th round of the Romanian Liga 1, looking to keep up their perfect domestic winning record this season.

Steaua keeps on dominating the Liga 1 despite losing their manager in the summer and many important players over the course of the last 2 seasons. There`s little doubt that Steaua is in another football world than most of their competitors with the exception of Astra and Petrolul. Steaua so far has 9 wins and 2 draws in 11 matches in all competitions these seasons, the only times they failed to win being in the SuperCup against Astra and in the Champions League qualies against Aktobe. Last time out in Liga 1 Steaua defeated Pandurii 6-0 and is on the back of a 1-0 win against Ludogorets in the Champions League playoffs. Steaua also has 5 consecutive wins in all competitions, but will rest a lot of starters today ahead of the reverse leg against Ludogorets.

Ceahlaul started the season in horrible fashion, drawing in the League Cup with a team on the brink of extinction (Otelul) and losing the first two Liga 1 rounds with 8-1 aggregate. However, after bringing in experienced manager Florin Marin they managed to gain 4 points in the last 2 rounds, including a draw against a pretty strong Dinamo Bucharest side in the last match. Even so, Ceahlaul`s game is very, very poor, their offense is non-existent and the results came by defending well and speculating the weaknesses of the opponents.

Bet with the best odds and highest limits at Pinnacle.

Team news & lineups

Steaua will use the reserve keeper and an inovative center back pairing, but otherwise the team looks pretty decent with mostly regular starters or first option reserves.

Steaua: Nita – Luchin, Aldea, Tosca, Parvulescu – Filip, Neagu – Chipciu, Iancu, Valceanu – Keseru (Gradinaru)

Ceahlaul: Calancea – Dumitras, Marc, Cazan, Slavickas – V. Achim, Clonin – Popadiuc, Stefanescu, Chitosca – Pavel

Steaua will use the reserve squad for this game, only 3-4 regulars will be part of the starting lineup.

Normally Steaua should have odds of about 1.15 here at best, but the fact they will play with a lot of reserves gives us a fantastic price on the hosts. I keep on being shocked by these odds Steaua is getting at home in Romania. I reckon it`s the 7th or 8th time in 2014 that Steaua will play with the reserves at home against poor teams, every time the odds went up, every time Steaua covered the handicap. All of Steaua`s last 17 home wins covered the 1,5 goal handicap!!! They did fail to win twice last season in similar circumstances, but it happened in the last 2 games of the season when Steaua already won the title.

The hosts have amazing depth in their squad and it`s not just the quality of the players that allows them to dominate the league, it`s the system and physical training regime, that`s why they are able to win even when resting their best players. It was a similar situation against Pandurii last week and Steaua won 6-0. Indeed, this time the hosts might use even more reserves, but Ceahlaul is a very poor side and I don`t see them putting up any resistence here. My tip is Steaua to win and cover the 1,5 goal handicap. Prediction: Steaua Bucharest – Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt 3-0.

Pick: Steaua (-1,5)
Odds: 2.15 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 10.35
Event date: 23 August