Cluj VS Universitatea Craiova

Cluj welcome U Craiova for this Romanian Liga 1 round 17 battle at Stadionul Dr. Constantin Rădulescu in Cluj-Napoca early Tuesday morrning Beijing time. This league is of mediocre level by European standards and only the best teams playing against eachother usually offers good entertainment for football fans to watch. I do not often go for big favorites at relatevily low odds but here I see the odds being too high for the hosts! The have a clear edge in all areas of the game. The biggest difference in the hosts' favor is in offense – especially in the strikers' and midfielders' individual skil level. Cluj are a traditional big club that has achieved some success even in UEFA's club competitions against big teams. This season they have played in UEFA Conference League where they finished in second place in Group D – one point behind a good Turkish Club, Sivaspor. This means that they qualified for the 1/16-finals. A dangerous club from Czech Republic, Slavia Prague, was third in the group so Cluj can be proud of their achievement! If had they not been unlucky in the Champions League qualification in July I think they would probably have qualified for Europa League. The visitors can only dream of success like this in Europe! Cluj have very loyal and enthusiastic fans and have won six of their eight matches at Stadionul Dr. Constantin Rădulescu. They are close to 70% favorites to win this match!

U Craiova are a weak team in the road and have won just one their eight matches in this league this season away from home. They are overall in bad form at the moment. Indeed, they have failed to win any of their latest six matches and have lost three of these six games. In their most recent match they faced Farul Constante and were not bad overall but their offense lacked speed and creativity, the visitors won 2-1. Before this they were slightly disappointing at home against Hermannsradt as favorites according the the bookies and it was a 1-1 draw. Moreover, before this they failed to beat Dinamo Bucuresti in Romanian Cup round battle despite being priced around 1.40 to win on the betting market. It was a goalless draw and yet another lame performance offensively. They have grabbed just 16 points so far and are in the 14th place. Cluj are in 4th place with 28 points but would have deserved 34 points in terms of expected points. They are the second best in this league in my opinion and will surely climb up the standings in the Championship Group..