FCSB and Bologna will do battle in the Europa League at the National Arena in Romania on Thursday evening.
Elias Charalambous’ hosts kicked off their campaign with a 1-0 win over Go Ahead Eagles before crashing to a 2-0 defeat when hosting Young Boys.
That return currently has the Romanian heavyweights residing in 24th place in the Europa League standings.
On the domestic front, FCSB are enduring a nightmare season, with Saturday’s 2-1 loss away at FC Metaloglobus Bucuresti leaving Charalambous’ struggling side languishing in 12th place in the SuperLiga table.
As for Bologna, they have one point on the board after two rounds of Europa League action, losing 1-0 to Aston Villa before playing out a 1-1 draw with Freiburg.
However, Vincenzo Italiano’s team are ticking along nicely in Serie A this season, with Sunday’s 2-0 win at Cagliari lifting them up to 5th place in the table.
How the bookies view it: Bologna to bag the points
The bookmakers expect Bologna to pick up their maiden Europa League victory of the season on Thursday evening, with an away success chalked up at 8/13 on Boylesports.
FCSB are as big as 15/4 on Boylesports to bank all three points while a share of the spoils is an unfancied 11/4 with the same firm.
Head to head: History book blank
It will come as little surprise to learn that FCSB and Bologna will face each other for the first time ever on Thursday evening.
Players to watch: Orsolin on-song
Having racked up six goals across his nine appearances in all competitions for Bologna this season, Riccardo Orsolin holds plenty of appeal to register either a goal or an assist during this contest at an eye-catching 10/11 with PaddyPower.
David Miculescu scored during FCSB’s aforementioned 1-0 win over Go Ahead Eagles on matchday one. The Romanian winger is as big as 9/2 on Boylesport to repeat the trick on Thursday evening.
Predicted line-ups
FCSB boss Charalambous will be unable to call upon the services of injured trio Daniel Graovac, Joyskim Dawa and Mihai Popescu.
For the visitors, Ciro Immobile remains sidelined with a hamstring injury, but apart from that they look set to have a clean bill of health.
FCSB: Tarnovanu; Cretu, Ngezana, Alhassan, Pantea; Sut, Tanase; Miculescu, Olaru, Thiam; Alibec
Bologna: Skorupski; Holm, Vitik, Lucumi, Lykogiannis; Freuler, Ferguson; Orsolini, Odgaard, Cambiaghi; Castro
Anything else catch the eye?
Bundling up a Bologna win alongside under 4.5 goals will bring about an attractive 10/11 shot on Boylesports.
This bet would have been a winning one in each of the Red and Blues’ four victories across all competitions this season.
Italiano’s side managed to keep a clean sheet in three of those four victories, so a repeat here also looks worthy of consideration at 13/8 with Boylesports.
GambleAware