Romania welcome minnows San Marino to the Arena Nationala on Tuesday night in their final World Cup qualifier in what is effectively a dead rubber for both.
Romania made a poor start to their World Cup qualifying campaign, losing two of their opening three qualifiers at home to Bosnia & Herzegovina and away at Austria.
Mircea Lucescu’s men did take seven points from their next three qualifiers (W2-D1-L0), but a 3-1 defeat in Bosnia on Saturday night evaporated their hopes of a top two finish.
Nevertheless, The Tricolorii will get a second chance in the playoffs via the Nations League route.
Unsurprisingly, San Marino will finish bottom of Group H after losing each of their opening seven World Cup qualifiers.
Roberto Cevoli’s visitors have shipped a whopping 32 goals across those seven defeats, with their solitary strike coming in their 1-5 loss in the reverse fixture back in March.
How the bookies view it: Romania overwhelming favourites
Unsurprisingly, Romania are clear favourites to claim a third consecutive home victory, with BOYLE Sports pricing a home success at just 1/80.
San Marino are a whopping 50/1 with the same firm to claim a shock victory, whilst the draw is also unfancied at 25/1.
Head to head: Five on the spin for Romania?
Romania have won each of their four meetings with San Marino, including a 1-5 success in Serravalle back in March.
Players to watch: Value in Marin?
With Romania such short-priced favourites, finding value in the goal-scoring markets is pretty tough, but Razvan Marin is priced at 20/21 at Bet365.
The AEK Athens midfielder scored a brace against Cyprus in the Nations League last year, as well as a penalty against San Marino in the reverse fixture back in March.
Predicted line-ups:
Romania will be without Denis Dragus following his red card in Sarajevo on Saturday night.
San Marino don’t appear to have any new injury news from their last match.
Romania: Radu, Ratiu, Racovitan, Ghita, Chipciu, Marin, Hagi, Dragomir, Man, Mihaila, Birligea
San Marino: Colombo, Benvenuti, Cevoli, Rossi, Riccardi, Casadei, Golinucci, Zannoni, Berardi, Lazzari, Nanni
Anything else catch the eye?
With Romania such a short-priced favourite, finding any sort of value is pretty tough, with a Romania Win to Nil priced at just 1/3 at BOYLE Sports.
Romania -4.0 on the Asian Handicap pays 9/10 at Bet365, which means if San Marino lose by exactly four goals, we receive our stake back, whilst five or more will result in a full payout.
The minnows have lost five of their last six qualifiers by four or more goals, whilst they have also been thrashed 0-6 at home to Bosnia and 10-0 away at Austria just last month.
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