By Ian S Palmer
Hungary will be hosting Romania at the Groupama Arena in Budapest this Friday, September 4 in an important Group F Euro 2016 qualifying game. Romania is undefeated and sits on top of the group with 14 points on four wins and two draws. However, they haven’t been dominating anybody as they’ve scored seven goals in their six games and allowed just one. They’ve been relying on their defensive skills to win games and it’s been working so far. Hungary enters the match in third place with 11 points from three victories, a pair of draws and a loss. They’ve scored five goals and allowed three against.
Soccer Betting Preview – Hungary vs Romania
HEAD TO HEAD:
- The first meeting in Group F play between these two teams ended in a 1-1 draw when Balazs Dzsudzsak tied the game for Hungary on a free kick in Romania. The Romanians have the top defensive record in the entire Euro 2016 qualifying stage as they’ve allowed just one goal against, which came against Hungary. Raul Rusescu scored the opener for Romania in that 1-1 stalemate and it was quite a physical affair as there were a dozen yellow cards shown in it.
Sandwiched in between the two teams is Northern Ireland in second place with 13 points. The Faroe Islands are in fourth place with a surprising six points while Finland occupies fifth position with four points and Greece are the cellar dwellers with two. This is basically a must game for Hungary if they hope to climb into the top two spots and automatically qualify for the Euro 2016 tournament in France next year.
Hungary and Romania have met 21 times in the past with Hungary winning 10 losing four and drawing the other seven. Romania did manage to beat their neighbors 3-0 back in the Cyprus international tournament in 2004, but the game wasn’t recognized as an official international contest by FIFA. Romania didn’t beat the Hungarians until their 15th encounter in June of 1999. But since then, Romania has been in the driver’s seat with an eight-game undefeated streak against Hungary which consists of five wins and three draws.
Hungarian forward Zoltan Gera will have to sit this one out as he’s suspended. In addition, Balazs Dzsudzsak and Roland Juhasz will also receive one-game bans if they receive a yellow card in this fixture. For Romania, Mihai Pintilii is also out with a suspension and Gabriel Torje and Alexandru Chipciu are just a yellow card away from joining him. Hungary is unbeaten in their past five competitive contests with three victories and two draws. They lost the first group game 2-1 to Northern Ireland at home and haven’t lost since. They have trouble scoring though with just one goal in five of their six outings. Romania’s a tough road team as they’ve posted three clean sheets in their group games with two wins and a draw.
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