Concordia (home)
- Andrei Cristea has established a similar reputation for his CS Concordia Chiajna team, who play with discipline and play direct, while they are set-piece experts and dangerous in transition situations.
- Concordia are mid-table in the Liga II and have not been consistent in the league, suffering an unexpected defeat to Sepsi, but they caused a huge upset in the Cup to beat Dinamo 3-0 away from home in December.
Botoșani (away)
- Leo Grozavu has done a superb job at FC Botoșani, whose reputation as a well-organized, counter-attacking team with an ability to play some good football from wide areas where they overload with numbers is well-earned.
- The SuperLiga side have established themselves as a top-six team in Romania, with 39 - 42 points this season, while they have one of the best defensive records in the division.
- Botosani have been in good form, beating Metaloglobus 3-0 in their last game, although they had lost to FCSB 1-0 and were held to a 0-0 draw by Oțelul prior to that.
Head-to-Head
Concordia are also a well established Romanian Cup team with 10 wins in 25 official H2H clashes with Botoșani, five defeats and 10 draws, and an average of 2.2 goals per game in those matches.
Key Players
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Botoșani’s success is built on compactness, controlled build-up play, and selective pressing, with Sebastian Mailat the creative player who also leads the scoring, while Hervin Ongenda and Zoran Mitrov are two other capable assist men and good runners.
- Sebastian Mailat
- Hervin Ongenda
- Zoran Mitrov
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Nicolae Carnat is Concordia’s assist leader and playmaker, while Boiciuc, Bălașa and Neicuțescu have all been contributing goals in this Cup campaign.
- Nicolae Carnat
- Boiciuc
- Bălașa
- Neicuțescu
Betting Insights
- Botoșani are 2.33 favorites for Thursday’s clash, which is close considering their SuperLiga status and status as the away team, but still they represent good value.
- Under 2.5 goals is a good price at 1.72 for this Cup clash between two teams who are desperate for a result to qualify from Group D.
Prediction
- This game should be close and cagey, with the winter cold in Chiajna likely to slow down the tempo, so the more physically ready, organised and focused side could prevail and that will probably be Botoșani.
- But Concordia have the pedigree to still pull an upset in this Cup competition, so there is value in backing the away side.
