Stuttgart v Unirea Champions League Betting Preview

Champions League / Ben Lyttleton / 08 December 2009 / Leave a Comment

The man they call the Hammer. Thomas Hitzlsperger has recently been deposed as Stuttgart captain but remains an important player for the club and indeed Germany.

Galamaz has praised the family spirit of Unirea, a tiny club from Urziceni, a village of 10,000 people, and insisted that the team “will be playing for Romania and for our lives” in Stuttgart.

Ben Lyttleton talks us through the recent fortunes of Stuttgart and tells us why Unirea are far from being the team the German side would like to be facing in a must-win match on Wednesday night.

Poor old Markus Babbel. The former Liverpool and Stuttgart defender must have thought he had this coaching lark sussed when he took Stuttgart from the drop-zone to third place in his first season in charge. Unfortunately he appears to have been afflicted by Second Season Syndrome, not helped by the sale of top scorer Mario Gomez to Bayern Munich and the inconsistent form of recently-deposed captain Thomas Hitzlsperger. Pavel Pogrebnyak, Gomez's replacement, and full-back Arthur Boka should have recovered from muscle strains to play.

But Stuttgart are back where Babbel found them, near the bottom of the Bundesliga and winless since September. After Saturday's 1-1 draw with relegation rivals Bochum, he was shown the door, with Christian Gross coming in to replace him. The situation the Swiss boss faces in Europe is not a pretty one: one home win in their last six Champions League matches, including a draw against whipping-boys Rangers on Matchday One.

And I doubt he would have chosen Unirea as his first opponents. The Romanian champions are joint-top in their own league but they have saved their best form of the season for this competition. Coach Dan Petrescu does not share Babbel's second season problems, although the fact low expectations have helped him. "At first we didn't want to embarrass ourselves, then we thought we could finish third in the group and now we want qualify," said charismatic skipper George Galamaz, a centre-back who will be attracting some attention in January.

Galamaz has praised the family spirit of Unirea, a tiny club from Urziceni, a village of 10,000 people, and insisted that the team "will be playing for Romania and for our lives" in Stuttgart. He claimed they would not play for the draw they need to progress, but with Stuttgart having to go for the win, there will be chances for the visitors.

Stuttgart clearly have a better team on paper but on current form I cannot see them getting the win they need in this one: Unirea to win is the value bet at ([6.0]) but the draw is a safer, and still attractive, ([3.6)]. The 1-1 Correct Score is ([7.8]).

Recommended bets:

Unirea to win @ [6.0]
Correct Score 1-1 @ [7.8]