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FC Copenhagen will look to deliver the final blow to Astra Giurgiu and qualify to the Champions League playoffs, after claiming a 1-1 draw in Romania.
The Danes started off this season in brilliant fashion, wining 3 out of 3 matches in the league with a goal difference of 11-0. They beat Crusaders 9-0 aggregate earlier in the Champions League qualifying rounds, so that`s 5 wins out of 5 matches with an average scoreline of 4-0 per game, very impressive. Nevertheless, none of the teams they beat compare to Astra and that was pretty visible last week in Romania, when Copenhaga was held to a 1-1 draw – but even so their performance and the result were good, especially as that was without a doubt Astra Giurgiu’s best match of the season.
Astra hasn`t been impressive at all this season in Romania. They won the Supercup against CFR Cluj via an ugly 1-0, lost 1-4 to Dinamo Bucharest and got a 0-0 over the weekend against Pandurii. The team is playing without arguably the two best players from last season, Gaman (sold) and Alibec (injured), while also missing manager Sumudica, who is suspended (both domestically and in Europe) after betting on Liga 1 matches. The visitors are feeling this blows, but even so they played Ok last week against Copenhagen.
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Team news & lineups:
Neither side has reported new injuries of note. Astra continues to miss top scorer Alibec, but new signing Sapunaru is finally ready to start in defense.
FC Copenhagen: Olsen – Ankersen, Johansson, Jørgensen, Augustinsson – Verbic, Delane, Kvist, Toutouh – Santander, Cornelius
Astra Giurgiu: Lung jr. – Vangjeli, Sapunaru, Fabricio, Junior Morais – Seto, Lovin, Boldrin – Boudjemaa, Teixeira, De Amorim
Astra looked pretty good in the first leg, better than expected – but the question now is if they can look as well in Denmark. I feel the distance, plus the differences in culture and climate make home court advantage very important in this tie. And that would be a problem for the Romanians as, despite Astra being decent in the first leg, Copenhagen was still the better team in Romania.
I don`t believe the Romanians have enough to challenge Copenhaga for qualification here, as the hosts are the better team and look to be in great shape in this start of the season, while the Romanians are dealing with some problems. Still, I do think Astra has enough to make the game relatively interesting.
I can see a 1 or 2 goal win for Copenhagen here and was thinking about a 1 goal asian handicap bet, but the odds on the hosts are rubbish and I am definitely not touching them. Instead, I will bet on Copenhagen to win by 1 goal – great odds and a perfectly possible outcome. If they win by 2 / 3 goals, or if Astra pulls of an upset, the loss will be minimum.
My tip on this clash is a draw on the -1 European handicap market (Copenhagen to win by 1 goal). Prediction: FC Copenhagen – Astra Giurgiu 2-1.
Pick: -1 EH Draw (Copenhagen by 1 goal)
Odds: 3.83 @ 18Bet
Stake: 4
Possible profit: 11.32
Event date: 3 August
