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Romania is currently on 4th place in Group D standings but with solid chances of advancing to the playoffs. For that to happen, Romania must defeat Andorra and Estonia, while Turkey and Hungary must NOT get more than 4 points each in their remaining two games. This is very possible, with both Turkey and Hungary having to play against Netherlands. Since Hungary plays Holland away, they are almost out of the race. If Turkey wins both its matches (they play Holland at home in the last group game), Romania still has a chance to go through, but they need to get a goal difference around 8-0 in the two games with Andorra (away) and Estonia (at home). Bottom line, Romania has solid chances to finish second and badly needs goals here with Andorra.
Andorra made enormous progress in the last years and is not a team on which you can be sure of building a goal difference anymore. They come into this match on the back of a very honorable 0-2 loss against Netherlands, but despite all these positive factors they were poor overall in the group. No points, no goals, and 24 goals conceded in 8 rounds. The team, of course, consists in amateur players from the domestic championship and a few guys playing in the lower spanish leagues.
Romania went through a rebuilding process in these qualifiers, but the team played surprisingly good under the controversial coaching of Victor Piturca. Piturca is considered to be a dubious character in Romania but overall nobody can question his performances and he was a huge upgrade to the former manager, Razvan Lucescu, who sent the team into complete anonymity a few years ago. He knows how to approach these kind of matches. I`m a long time critic of the romanian national team, but the visitors now have some quality young players, especially on the offensive end with Stuttgart`s star man Maxim, Getafe`s Marica and Espanyol`s Torje. Romania only lost points against the strong teams in this group and showed a great hunger for goals in most of the games.
Team news
Andorra will miss three very important players: keeper Gomes and regular defenders Lima and San Nicolas. It`s a blow for them and a challenge that will test their questionable depth in the squad. Romania does not have notable injury worries aside from some players who were not called up, most notable being striker Mutu.
Andorra did manage to get some honorable results lately and they have progressed a lot, but they are still an amateur team with no points in this group. By no means am I underestimating the hosts, but after all they did lose at home 5-0 versus Hungary, or 5-0 in Turkey last month. It will be interesting to see what they can do in a clash with a solid opponent which is fully focused and NEEDS to win by as many goals as possible against them. Romania won`t stop at 2-0 or 3-0 and will go for goals until the 90th minute. I like how Romania approached this match, they were respectful but at the same time they stated that they will do all they can in order to score as many goals as they can. Andorra`s injuries in defense will make the job easier for Romania, and I expect the visitors to create a lot of chances to score. On the other hand, I think the hosts can score their first goal in this campaign if Romania goes all out attack at some point, so my tip is over 3,5 goals instead of a handicap. The bookies are also not very keen on giving away big handicaps so far.
Previously in this group Romania defeated Andorra 4-0 at home after a relaxed performance. Something like 1-5 seems to be on the cards for this one and the 3,5 line seems safe enough to be attacked with maximum stakes.
Pick: over 3,5
Odds: 2.05 @ Bwin
Stake: 10
Possible profit: 10.5
Event date: 11 October
Editor Facts
- Rostick is 1 for 2 in tips on Romania in the World Cup 2014 qualifying round
