Chiajna – Steaua

Romanian football finally resumed last weekend after a long Winter break and now Concordia Chiajna and Steaua Bucharest will play the last match of Liga 1’s 24’th round on Monday.

Chiajna is the second to last team in Romania with just 17 points gained in 23 rounds and they are definitely not looking good this year. Chiajna made some moves in the Winter hoping to strengthen the team in order to avoid relegation. They managed to finalize two shock transfers, Christian Obodo (ex Udinese) and Artem Milevski (ex Dynamo Kiev), real surprising moves for such a small and irrelevant club. They’re obviously way past their best, but even so, great transfers for Chiajna IF they really came here to play, not just for the Bucharest night life and an easy payday.

Steaua Bucharest had a horrible first part of the season, mostly barely finishing 5th after 23 rounds, mostly due to dreadful coaching. But things have changed a lot at the end of last year. The three time reigning Liga 1 Champions brought in ex-manager Reghecampf, who won all 4 of his matches in charge to end the year. In the Winter, Steaua had an excellent transfer window, bringing in some stellar players for Liga 1 level, including Marica (ex Stuttgart, Schalke, Konyaspor), Gebhardt (ex Stuttgart, Nurnberg) or national team players like Pintilii and Tamas, among others. The team has by far the best squad in Liga 1 and with Reghecampf back as well, they are confident of winning the title for a 4th consecutive time.

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Lineups:

Chiajna: Matache – Barboianu, Mamele, Tincu, Bucurica – Giurgiu – Cristescu, Obodo, Zerbo, Purece – Milevskiy

Steaua Buc.: Nita – Papp, Tamas, Varela, Tosca – Pintilii – Popa, Chipciu, Stanciu, Hamroun – Marica

Normally Steaua needs some time to click with all the new faces that were brought in, especially that most of them have not played in some time. But honestly I would not be surprised if they will play well right from the start. Reghecampf’s two main qualities are the physical training and his motivating abilities. This, coupled with the fact that they ended last year on a high, makes me believe they will start performing quickly. They also know that with the new playoff format, there’s no time for experiments and the level in Liga 1 is really poor.

Anyway, Steaua definitely does not need to be at its best in order to defeat this Chiajna side. The hosts have been dirt poor last year and they won`t be much better just by bringing in 2 former great players in Obodo and Milevski, who may or may not be interested to play football alongside a poor squad.

Also, Chiajna’s only advantage by playing at home is their artificial pitch, otherwise the match is played in a suburb of Bucharest and most fans will support Steaua.

Concordia never defeated Steaua, who has 8 wins out of 9 matches in Liga 1 against today’s hosts. This may or may not be attributed to the fact that the relations between the management of the two clubs are friendly to say the least and to the fact that Reghecampf’s wife is the agent of most Chiajna players. Reghecampf himself coached here and is very tight with the owner and some of the players.

The visitors should have little trouble claiming 3 crucial points here, they are the better team by far and never had problems against Concordia. My tip is Steaua to win with a 1 goal asian handicap. Prediction: Concordia Chiajna – Steaua Bucharest 0-3.

Pick: Steaua Buc (-1 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 1.90 @ Sbobet
Stake: 9
Possible profit: 8.10
Event date: 15 February