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Romanian side Astra Giurgiu will host Zira FK (Azerbaijan) in the first leg of the Europa League second qualifying round.
Astra finished 6th last season in Romania and had a great showing in Europe where they reached the Last 32 of the Europa League, but those performances are unlikely to be repeated any time soon. Astra sold all its best players over the summer, letting go of virtually the entire roster, plus their manager. They brought in a few decent replacements on lower salaries and a pretty good coach as well (Edi Iordanescu), but overall they clearly lost a lot of strength, and building chemistry could be a long process.
Zira ended 4th last season in Azerbaijan and, while they don`t have the money of Qabala or Qarabag, they are a good team in a league that has improved tremendously over the last few years. Zira has already played two matches in the Europa League this season, qualifying comfortably against Luxembourgese side Differdange (2-0, 2-1).
Bet on Astra Giurgiu vs. Zira and claim your 100% (100 Eur) bonus at Ohmbet now!Team news: Astra will field a rather experimental roster, with only 2 starters from last season set to feature in the game.
Astra’s roster is not necessarily poor, but they are clearly not the same team anymore. It`s a roster built for a mid table finish in Romania at best, but their biggest problem right now is lack of chemistry.
This will be the first match of the season for a team that lost 16 players and hired 11 new ones, while also changing the manager. Astra was dirt poor in friendlies and they will obviously need a lot of time to build playing relations and learn how to coexist at a high level.
To top it off, they meet a team that already has 2 official matches under its belt and which is built on discipline, defensive organization and good chemistry. Zira allowed less than 1 goal per game last season in Azerbaijan, which is a solid stat in a pretty high scoring league with 2-3 teams of certain European quality.
I can see Zira coming to Romania and playing a good tactical game, frustrating an Astra team which badly lacks organization and cohesion. Astra could have problems finding spaces, while Zira should be able to exploit Astra’s lack of chemistry on counterattacks.
Since the quality difference is very small in favor of Astra (some may argue Astra is not even a better side than Zira), you have to go with the team that is better organized, more cohesive and which already has matches under its belt this season.
Zira has a good shot to steal a draw here, or even win the game. At the very worst, I see Astra crawling their way to a difficult 1 goal win (which would return half of the stakes on my bet). My tip is Zira to cover the 0,75 asian handicap. Prediction: Astra Giurgiu – Zira FK 1-1.
Pick: Zira (+0,75 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 1.81 @ 10Bet
Stake: 7
Possible profit: 5.67
Event date: 13 July
