The opening match in the World Cup Qualic.

Along Austria and France we have Faroe Islands, Lituania, Romania and Serbia. So a long with Romania this is the two best teams in the group, and Of course France the favorite to win the group, so therefor this is a important match to win. Both of the teams were in the Euro Cup. France made the biggest surprise of all, of course in the "horrorgroup", losing Netherlands and Italia, and drew against Romania, and as favorites they didn't made it through the group stages. Now they are up for revange and will do anything to be secure for the world cup 2010. Austria in Euro Cup, Lost be 1-0 against Germany and Croatia, and 1-1 drew with Poland, So none of them made it to the quarter finals. When it comes to friendlies to prepare for this match - they both played August 20th. Austria drew Italy 2-2, and France won Sweden 2-3. Both teams showed attacking strenght, but both conceeded 2 goals. In this opening match I predict an open match, and both will create chances and attack, but in the end the french stars will be the strongest team and take all 3 points back to France.

(c) betshoot.com

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Romania are a superb home team. They are so good they have not lost at home for 16 straight games. Their last loss at home was a 1-2 friendly defeat by the Ivory Coast. In their last 11 matches at home, they have won 10, with the other one drawn, 0-0 against France. They have beaten some good teams as well, including Serbia (4-0), Russia (3-0), Holland (1-0), Turkey (2-0) and Slovenia (2-0). Lithuania have proved to be tricky oppositions to some teams however, and they might cause Romania a problem or two. However, Lithuania's bad record against better teams away from home could prove to be their downfall.

Romania boast some quality players, but they must tackle today's match without their inspirational striker Adrian Mutu. As such, Ciprian Marica, Daniel Niculae and Niculae Dica will be looked upon to fire Romania through. Lithuania's main men must surely be Jankauskas and Danilevius. Jankauskas is a very experienced forward, while Danilevius is Lithuania's captain and top scorer. Still, I think Romania are just too good. The last 3 times these sides played at Romania's home turf, Romania won each and every time, without conceding a single goal. With that in mind, Romania look tempting!

(c) asianhandicap

World Cup Qual.: Andorra vs England

This one is an obvious mismatch, but the way England has been playing recently this may be an overstatement. England is looking to open these qualifications strongly and prove that missing out on a EURO was just case of bad luck. This will be Capello’s first competitive game in charge, and he will be very motivated to start with a convincing win. This should not be too difficult as they will face one of the weakest nations in Europe, Andorra, the country of only 66 000 inhabitants. England players will probably have in mind the game with Croatia just four days later, but Capello will make sure they take this game seriously.

The minors will try everything

Andorra is one of the smallest countries to take part in the World Cup qualifying. The country is situated between France and Spain, and has just 66,000 inhabitants. Andorra became a member of FIFA in 1996. Since then the team took part in five qualifying campaigns for big competitions but had little success. In the EURO 2004 qualifications, the team tasted victory for the first time in the official match, by beating Macedonia 2:1. The nation hopes to continue progressing, and to come as close to other European countries as possible. The hosts have already played England in the EURO 2008 qualifications, and lost both games. They lost 3:0 at home, and 5:0 away. This game will be another learning experience for the small football country.

Capello to rebuild confidence

The proud football nation has been struggling to make impact at the big stage. Until last year, England easily qualified for the big tournaments, but couldn’t repeat the performances in the final stages. Last year they went one step backwards by not reaching the EURO. The alarm bells were on and the FA brought Fabio Capello in charge to restore the lost confidence and lead the country to the next World Cup. After five friendly games the qualifiers start against Andorra, with the game against Croatia just four days after that. The main job of the new manager is to restore the lost confidence to the players and make them play for England as they play for their teams. He will not be able to count on Gerrard, Carrick, Richards and Hargreaves because of injuries, while Owen is also out due to lack of fitness. Beckham and Heskey are still in the squad, while Crouch is again overlooked. Jimmy Bullard has been a surprise call-up, and this is a reward for his good performances after coming back from a difficult injury.

Betting verdict

This game will be played at the Olympic stadium in Barcelona, where Andorra play their home games. The minors have already started these qualifiers with a loss in away game to Kazakhstan. Two years ago this same fixture ended with England winning 3:0. The hosts will definitely defend in numbers and try not to concede too many times. England will be motivated to show doubters they are good enough, and will try to win big. They will however be thinking about the game with Croatia, four days later, and might not put too much effort into this game. Anyway we expect big win and recommend betting on away win with -3 European handicap.

(c) freebetting

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No analysis for this pick.

Italy - Super Cup: Inter vs Roma

It turned out to be a tradition for Inter and Roma to open the season with Italian Supercup game…rules are that title holders will clash Cup winners. After calciopoli, the two sides were dominant at the Apennines and it didn’t change last season. After a lot of controversies, Inter were first to cross the finish line in Serie A, while, after a lot of complaints about their rivals being petted by the referees, Roma had to settle for Italian Cup. This might be a good opportunity for two sides to have the final check before the kick off. Both of them, along with Milan are claimed to be title candidates this season. While Inter, with Mourinho at the helm, are starting the new era, Roma, with more or less the same squad, and with a couple of new names such as Julio Baptista, are starting the new campaign. Despite great expectations, Inter didn’t change their squad significantly, revolution didn’t happen, but there will be one man fighting against his yesterday’s teammates. Brazil’s Mancini came to Inter this summer from Roma and it is sure he will be fully motivated in this duel.

Inter already adapted to Mourinho’s ways

In some of the first games in preseason, at the Amsterdam tournament and last week against Benfica, it was clear that Portuguese has got it all figured out regarding the squad. However, some of his players are still injured but his system will not be so different than the one we witnessed in Chelsea. To be honest, he did expect a lot more of this transfer campaign, Mancini and Muntari have arrived, Lampard didn’t and it is not certain will Quaresma put on the stripped shirt. Inter is still with the best squad in Serie A, but the entire defense line is recovering from injuries and no one is sure of the consequences this break will leave on Cordoba and Samuel. Inter are attempting to hire another defender these days in order to boost up the line, but nothing has happened for now. First goal of the season is Champions League, while Moratti is insisting on the title as well…Inter are aware of the strength and the ambitions of neighbors, Milan, even more since rossoneri are not in the European elite and will concentrate on the championship.

Roma without money for spectacular transfers

Although skipper, Totti, warned that the existing squad is not strong enough for title race, Baptista has arrived, but nothing more…in the first days of transfer window, they brought Risse, but Roma didn’t have more money. They have sold Mancini, managed to buy off Vucinic’s contract from Lecce and that’s it…they are still daydreaming about some players, but Spalletti will have to bring the best out the squad as it is for the new season. You can read all the details about Romans’ problems for the new season in our general preview, here, we will only mention that the current squad is insufficient for two battles season…to cut it short, they have the same problem like last year. They do possess quality, Totti is recovered sooner than expected, team is buttered up, and the arrival of Baptista is great thing, since he can play on different lines in the team. Adrian Mutu was their first wish, but they missed him by close shot…Brazilian is as good a solution as him and we expect him to fit in easily.

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No analysis for this pick.

Gloria Buzau currently has 0 points after the first 4 matches and things don't seem to improve very soon. Because of the results, but mostly because of the teams play the chairman decided it is time to make a change and Stefan Stoica who basically saved Gloria from relegation last year was sackedafter the 3rd game. His replacement is an Portugues coach Megalhaes, and under his helm the team played at Dinamo, losing 4-1, but in truth they could have conceded a dozen goals. It seems the Romanian players at the team weren't happy with the change and didn't give their best in this game. For this reason 2 changes are announced in the team as left back Ninu is replaced by Luis Dias and central midfielder Filip is replaced by Vlaicu.
Poli Timisoara is one of the high scoring sides of this league, last year the had the most prolific attack, and so far they scored 8 goals in 4 matches, while their defence is as usual poorer conceding 7. They have problems because of injuries, Left defender Mihalhez is replaced by Latovlevic, central defender will be Seretenovic, while the coach decided to play in the same 4-3-3 system which brought them the 3-1 win with Otopeni. Actual that match wasn't quite a good one for Poli, but the quality up-front decided the amtch as they have the capability to score at any time. Buzau has maybe the poorest side in this league, the players lack qualityand results have proved this so far. Even though Timisoara has a bad defence, I don't expect Buzau scoring more than their opponents and losing this game, they would have had more chances with the previous coach, but now they can't get anything. Over is also a good choice.

(c) bettingtipsters

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