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Pandurii and Dnipro will battle it out with Fiorentina and Pacos Ferreira in a reasonably tough Europa League group.
The romanians achieved a real performance by qualifying to the group stages at their european debut, knocking out a couple of strong teams in the process: 3-2 aggregate over Hapoel Tel Aviv, 2-1 agg. over Braga and 4-0 agg. over Levadia Tallin. Pandurii is currently 5th in Romania after seven rounds, 2 points clear from the 1st place. Last season they finished 2nd and are part of a 3-4 teams group that are fighting for the title of the 2nd best team in Romania after strong Steaua Bucharest. The hosts are not very strong financially but they have an excellent youth system and they produced a lot of quality players in the last years. The manager Pustai is also very able, he guided lowly Gaz Metan to qualification over Mainz in this competition a couple of years ago.
Pandurii sold some players in the transfer window, including left-back Vlad to Dnipro, but the replacements they brought in are arguably even better than the guys that left. Eric de Oliveira is a brilliant offensive midfielder and he has the quality to disturb even the best of defenses.
Dnipro is a solid team, they invested a lot of money in the last years but they did not quite have the expected results. They did not win any silverware and did not impress in Europe, except winning the Intertoto Cup in 2006. They finished 4th last season in Ukraine and are currently 2nd in the standings. Dnipro is in good form but they did take advantage of the fact that Dinamo Kiev, Shakhter Donetk and Metalist Kharkov started the season in poor fashion.
A problem for Pandurii is that they are not playing their european games on their home stadium, they have to travel to Cluj. They won just one of the three european games played in Cluj this season and performed better away from home. Nevertheless, the team is in solid form, playing well home and away, they know the situation and its a disadvantage they learned how to deal with.
Pandurii has what it takes to hold their own against better teams and Dnipro is not so scary, especially on the road had. With a good defense and a lot of fantasy in attack, the romanian side is underestimated here and they can continue their solid european campaign. No big squad problems for these two teams. Take Pandurii to take at least a draw here.
Pick: Pandurii +0,5
Odds: 1.94 @ Pinnacle
Stake: 6
Possible profit: 5.64
Event date: 19 September
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