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Moldavian Champions Milsami Orhei will play arguably their biggest ever match against French side Saint-Etienne in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League playoff round.
Milsami shocked the football world with their double win over Ludogorets in the second qualifying round of the Champions League (1-0, 2-1), but they quickly showed their limits in the next round, being easily routed by Skenderbeu, 4-0 aggregate. It can really be said that the Ludogorets win was a fluke – the Bulgarians underestimated Milsami and they also had a ton of bad luck, missing chance after chance in both legs.
Milsami`s quality is rather poor, they have a bunch of mediocre Moldavian players, some washouts from the Romanian League, really nothing special. They won the League last year in the last round, finishing tied with two other teams. They were demolished by Sheriff both in the Cup final (0-3) and recent Supercup (1-3) and already lost a game in the freshly started Moldavian league. Bottom line, Milsami is not looking too good and they are unlikely to win the league again this season.
St Etienne started the season with an excellent 3-0 road win against Romanian vice champions Targu Mures, a team highly superior to Milsami. They did lose the reverse leg 1-2, trailing 0-2 at one time, so they won`t make the mistake of treating this European games lightly again. Unfortunately for the visitors, they started the league poorly, with just 1 point in the first two games against accessible opponents like Bordeaux and Toulouse (after the 2nd leg defeat with Targu Mures), so if they screw up this one, they will really get into crisis.
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Team news & lineups:
Andronic is out for Milsami, while St Etienne could make a couple of tweaks here and there, but will mainly field the best lineup.
Milsami Orhei: Mitu – Rassulov, Shedrack, Racu, Erhan – Patras, Banovic, Cojacari, Antoniuc, Belak – Bud (Surdu)
St Etienne: Ruffier – Theophile-Catherine, Pogba, Sall, Assou-Ekotto – Clement, Lemoine, Diomande, Roux, Hamouma
It will not be the first meeting between the two sides, as St Etienne defeated Milsami with a double 3-0 in the same competition, back in 2013. Milsami is better than then, but not by so much. THe hosts are not even the best team in Moldova, their limits were obvious in the tie against Skenderbeu and I reckon that a hurt animal like St Etienne, playing with the first team and treating the game seriously, will not have too much problems here.
The difference in quality and experience is huge here and Milsami isn’t even in great form. Look for St Etienne to come out strong, looking to break the bad run. My tip is a St Etienne win with a -1 asian handicap. This line presents no risk if St Etienne wins by 1 goal, so I`m confortable betting maximum stakes. Prediction: Milsami Orhei – Saint Etienne 0-2.
Pick: St Etienne (-1 Asian Handicap)
Odds: 1.83 @ 10Bet
Stake: 10
Possible profit: 8.3
Event date: 20 August
