Lithuania vs Romania Predictions

Lithuania are the type of team who should be savouring the opportunity of the Nations League and the potential reward, but they have failed to capitalise on this so far and could be subject to another defeat here.

Lithuania have only won one game this year, a friendly victory over the 100th best team in the world Armenia in March, in what has been a horrid run for them. 15 goals conceded in their eight games this year have really shown the frailty of this squad, filled with players who fail to match the quality of Lithuania’s stars like Dinamo Moscow’s Fedor Chernykh and Tobol Kostanay’s Arturas Zulpa. These players have been the stalwarts of the squad for five years, and they far outshine the rest of the team.

Lithuania have lost both of their Nations League games so far without even scoring a goal, in fact they haven’t bagged one in any of their last four matches. They bowed out to an electric Montenegro (0-2) side last time out but they will be kicking themselves for their loss to Serbia (0-1). It was a very tight match against such a good side and the Lithuanians really stood their ground for a lot of it, so for them to concede off of a penalty was extremely disheartening.

These performances haven’t been absolute trouncings though and with this match being played at home against Romania who, despite their lofty world ranking at 27th, have drawn both of their games so far, the Lithuanians should be trying to get their first points of the campaign in this match above all others. Unfortunately for Lithuania, the Romanians have such a dominant record over them, with them running out winners in 10 of their 11 clashes.

Lithuania will have to rely on Chernykh for the goals and will hope that the likes of Linas Klimavicius, who is in great from at the moment with Zalgiris Vilnius, and Egidijus Vaitkunas can bring some experience and calm at the back against this dangerous Romania side.

Romania are still to get going in the Nations League but have had some tough fixtures against Serbia (36th in world) and Montenegro (41st) already. With Romania being the highest ranked in the group, they would have obviously preferred wins in these matches but will still be content with their results in what will be one of the tightest groups in the competition.

Romania managed 16 shots compared to just 6 from Montenegro when the teams met in Ploiesti. The games finished 0-0 but the Tricolours should have really put the pressure on when Montenegro’s Stefan Mugosa was sent off with 13 minutes to go. This was a match that only garnered 3 shots on target from both teams though and was a very drab affair. Romania’s next match really brought the heat though as they drew 2-2 with Serbia. It was an end-to-end match with 10 shots on target and either team really could have won it, despite a tense but goalless last 25 minutes.

George Tucudean got his first goal for the national team in this game and has been in great from this season with eight goals in 10 games, he will surely feature in this game and could play alongside Denis Dragus again, the 19-year-old already has eight goals for his club Viitorul and is seen as Romania’s next attacking talent.

Romania haven’t lost any of their matches in 2018 and have only seen defeat in one of their last nine games, against the Netherlands last November. They are in a great run of form and have scored 12 in their last eight games and should really be looking to turn on the style against this weak Lithuania side.

Lithuania haven’t scored in any of their last four matches, while Romania have scored seven in that time. The Romanians have also won 10 of the last 11 clashes between these two but they are usually tight affairs, with the goal margin only being more than one goal once in their last four wins. Because of this, we’re going to back a 2-0 victory for Romania as we really don’t see Lithuania getting a goal against the Tricolours.