Viitorul – Astra

Viitorul Constanta and Astra Giurgiu will square off in the Romanian Cup quarterfinals, which will be played over a single leg. Viitorul is hosting the game on paper, but they play their home games in Chiajna, which is actually closer to Giurgiu than Constanta.

Viitorul was founded just a couple of years ago by former romanian midfielder Gheorghe Hagi as part of his youth academy, and the team quickly gained promotion to the Liga 1. Last year Viitorul had a pretty good squad with some talented youngsters but still they needed a very dubious win against Steaua Bucharest late in the season to avoid the drop. Over the summer, Viitorul lost all their best players and was left without proper replacements. The team is very poor this year, they are on the second to last place in the league with just 13 points in 15 rounds. They are on the back of a 4-3 win against Otelul, but prior to that they lost their last three games.

Astra, one of the most powerful teams in Romania in terms of finances, is leading the Liga 1 at the moment, 5 points clear from Steaua Bucharest (who has 2 games in hand). Astra played some great football this year, they have a statistical line of 10 wins, 2 draws and 2 losses, scoring 40 goals in 15 rounds. They also are by far the best team on the road, with a statline of 6-1-1 in the league. Astra is in excellent form with 5 consecutive wins in the last 4 games, so pretty much everything is going for them at the moment.

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Astra`s coach Isaila stated that the team is desperate to win a trophy this year, and the Romanian Cup is high on his list of priorities. He used the best available team in the last round of the cup, when Astra won a much tougher game on the road against Gaz Metan, so I expect the visitors to field the strongest available first eleven. They have a lot of depth anyway, so 2-3 missing players would not pose any problems.

When these two teams met in the league this year, Astra defeated Viitorul 4-0 on the road, and actually the Constanta side was lucky not to concede 5-6 goals. Since then, Astra just got better, so I can`t see what Viitorul can do to get a result here. Off-topic, an auxiliary info is that both teams have little to no fan support.

The visitors are by far the better team, they are in excellent form, motivated, and will play with the first team. Astra is also great on the road, even though Viitorul doesn’t even have the luxury to play in their own city, let alone home stadium. Viitorul`s defense looked simply horrible in the last few matches and I expect this all out attacking Astra side to create a boatload of chances and get the required goals to advance to the Romanian Cup semifinals. The visitors will keep the ball, put pressure and Constanta`s woeful defense will surely collapse, especially with Astra having so much quality up front. Viitorul could or could not get a goal themselves on counters. Quality, form and matchup all favor Astra in this match, so my pick here is a simple away win. The odds are dropping like crazy (not surprising), so I will go with maximim stakes on Astra while the odds still have value. However, I feel that even 1.45 odds would be worth the investment. My pick is Viitorul Constanta – Astra Giurgiu 0-2.

Pick: Astra Giurgiu
Odds: 1.55 @ Bet365
Stake: 10
Possible profit: 5.5
Event date: 3 December

Editor Facts

• Rostick won his last 6 tips in the Romanian Cup and Romanian Liga 1
• Rostick won all of his 3 tips in the Romanian Cup this season