Friday’s Football Bet of the Day see’s me once more tackle the Nations League and I’m keen to get Finland onside in their home fixture with Romania.
🇫🇮 Finland vs Romania 🇷🇴
🇪🇺 Nations League
⏰ Friday 23rd September, 19:45
The bottom-two sides in Group B3 meet at the Helsinki Olympic Stadium on Friday evening, as third-placed Finland plays host to fourth-placed Romania.
Finland come into this match off the back of successive defeats, as they followed up their 1-0 defeat in Romania by losing 3-2 away to Bosnia & Herzegovina. Markku Kanerva’s side currently has four points on the board, as they began their Nations League campaign with a 1-1 draw at home to the Bosnians before defeating Montenegro 2-0 – highlighting how much stronger they are on home soil. The Eagle-owls have lost just four of their last 17 competitive fixtures on home turf, with those defeats coming against France, Italy, Ukraine and Wales. Since its inception in 2018, Finland have posted a W6-D1-L1 record in the Nations League when playing as hosts, only conceding one goal in that defeat to Wales and one against Bosnia in their group opener.
Romania began their Nations League campaign with back-to-back defeats away to Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Edward Iordănescu’s side collected their first points by winning 1-0 in Bucharest in the reverse fixture with Finland, but they failed to build on that win as they were beaten 0-3 at home to the Montenegrins last time out to leave them bottom of the group. The Tricolorii aren’t particularly strong travellers, with them having W2-D2-L6 of their last 10 competitive fixtures away from home, with both victories coming against Iceland and minnows Lichtenstein. Romania have failed to win any of their last four Nations League matches on the road, losing three of them without scoring a goal.
Bet of the Day
These two nations currently occupy the bottom-two spots in Group B3 and whilst their chances of promotion are slim, both will be extremely keen to avoid demotion to League C. A key reason for Finland’s climb up the rankings in recent years is their strong home form and I’m hoping that continues against a Romania side that has struggled on their travels in recent times.
Finland has W6-D1-L1 of their eight Nations League outings as hosts and they’ll be confident of defeating a Romania side whose only two victories in their last 10 away competitive fixtures came against Iceland and Lichtenstein. Instead of taking the outright win, I’m happy to be slightly more conservative and take Finland -0.25 on the Asian Handicap. That would mean that if the match ends in a draw, we would at least receive half of our stake back.
- Finland -0.25 Asian Handicap
- Pays 19/20 (Unibet)
Finland -0.25 Asian Handicap ❎ (1-1)
Pays 19/20 ❎❎