Steaua Bucharest vs Osmanlispor Predictions, Betting Tips and Match Previews

Steaua Bucharest’s season hasn’t exactly gone to plan so far, in Europe at least. They made it to the Champions League Playoff round only to be drawn against a Manchester City side who hammered them. Their forays in the Europa League haven’t been overly successful either, with three draws and one defeat leaving them bottom of their group.

They are only two points adrift of 2nd placed Zurich so qualification is still within their grasp, but they need to up their game to outperform Zurich, Villarreal, and Osmanlispor.

Domestically Steuau Bucharest do sit top of the table, but they lost 1 – 0  on Saturday to make it three wins, three draws, and three defeats in their last nine outings in all competitions. To make matters worse, their only defeat in the group stages came against Osmanlispor back in September.

The visitors surprisingly sit atop the Europa League group and could seal qualification to the knockout stages with a win on Thursday. Domestically their form has suffered at times and they find themselves in 7th position in the Turkish Super Lig, but they’ve managed to get back in shape there recently as well.

Their 2-0 win over Alanyaspor on Saturday made it three games unbeaten in all competitions, one of which was a 2-1 win at Villarreal in the Europa League. They have won two, drawn one, and lost one of their four group games so far.

Domestically Osmanlispor’s star player this season has been midfielder Papa Alioune Ndiaye, but he has been unable to transfer his goalscoring form to Europe. Instead, they are relying on striker Raul Rusescu and attacking midfielder Aminu Umar to get their goals in Europe. Unfortunately for them Umar is sidelined for this one, making Rusescu the prime choice for our anytime goalscorer predictions.

Osmanlispor’s defence has been a bit less efficient than it was in their 2-0 win over Steuau Bucharest in September. They have conceded five goals in their three Europa League games since then and have conceded in eight of their last ten games. The hosts have conceded in ten of their last 13 outings in all competitions though, and Osmanlispor have only failed to score in one of their last 15.

This makes odds of 10/11 for Both Teams to Score look very good value, and I’m backing that along with another Osmanlispor win with a 2-1 correct score predictions at 10/1.