Botosani – Dinamo Buc

FC Botosani and Dinamo Bucharest will take the court in the 11th round of the Romanian Liga 1. Botosani is currently on the 12th place (out of 14), while Dinamo is sitting on the 4th spot. Each team can climb a position with a win today.

The hosts enter this game with an interim coach, after Grozavu was sacked. Botosani was supposed to have a decent season this year, they finished 8th last year and even qualified for Europe due to most teams ahead of them being ineligible. But, for some reasons, the hosts have failed miserably. There have been too many changes in the team and Botosani was horrible both in Europa League and in Romania, where they have the second worst record in the league (one of the teams below them had a points deduction). The hosts have just 2 wins in 15 matches in all competitions (1 in 10 in Liga 1) and in the last 5 outings they have 4 losses and 1 draw – a hard fought 0-0 last round against fellow relegation rivals Chiajna. Needless to say, form and morale are at an all time low.

Dinamo lost its first match of the season in all competitions on Monday, falling 0-2 at home to CFR Cluj, but that result is completely misleading. Dinamo had three players ejected (minutes 39, 53 and 85), while also conceding a penalty in the first half. If not for these refereeing decisions, the match was going towards a narrow Dinamo win, maybe a draw, but surely not a loss. Actually, one can say that it was actually pretty impressive how Dinamo kept the game respectable in these conditions against one of the best teams in Liga 1, CFR Cluj.

The Red Dogs are having a good season so far, they are very well coached and organized, relying on a solid defense. Dinamo is still undefeated on the road, where they have 5 draws in 5 matches and a win in the League Cup – all of these games being against very good teams, all better than Botosani.

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Team news & lineups:

FC Botosani will miss Acsinte, Popovic, Ngadeu and Miron. The hosts will not have a valid left back available and will need to improvise. Dinamo will miss Matei, Filip and Feussi (all suspended), in addition to Gnohere. Coach Mircea Rednic is also suspended and will be in the stands. New signing Ghomsi (ex Mechelen) will make his debut at left back.

FC Botoşani: Iliev – Patache, Cordoş, Plămadă, Dimitrov – Vaşvari, Cucu, Cabrera – Quenten, Hadnagy, Fülöp

Dinamo Buc.: Černiauskas – Fai, Marc, Mevlja, Ghomsi – Vojnović, Anton – Gavrilă, Palic, Rotariu – Essombé

It`s crazy how the bookies are considering Botosani the favorite here, at the worst case the odds should be equal. The hosts are in horrible form, played poor all season and they are surely worse in quality than Dinamo. The visitors are in a good moment and will be keen to avenge that peculiar defeat against CFR. Indeed, the Red Dogs are missing some important players, but there is enough depth to cover for them. Only Filip is truly a big blow and Botosani has its own injury problems.

A draw is not out of the question, but it would be a big surprise if Dinamo loses this. The visitors are very hard to beat, lost a single game all season (due to bad luck) and are undefeated away, playing against better teams than Botosani – all this while Botosani can`t beat anybody this year, winning just once in 10 games in Liga 1. I doubt firing the manager can have a big and immediate impact in Botosani and even if it did, they would still not be favorites as far as I am concerned – they just don`t have the quality.

My tip is a Dinamo Bucharest win but with a +0 asian handicap insurance in case of a draw result. Prediction: FC Botosani – Dinamo Bucharest 0-2.

Pick: Dinamo Buc (+0 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 2.11 @ Sbobet
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 9.99
Event date: 20 September