Celtic vs CFR Cluj 14/08/19

14 August 2019

A 1-1 draw in Romania last week means that Celtic and CFR Cluj have everything to play for in the second leg of their Champions League Qualifiers tie that takes place at Celtic Park this midweek.

Regarded as big favorites to prevail in this two-legged tie, the hosts come into this fixture after racking up a 13-game unbeaten run (W10, D3). Unstoppable in the final third, the Bhoys have netted 2+ match goals across all of those ten triumphs, restricting their opponents to a maximum of one goal per match nine times in the process. The Hoops have enjoyed an impressive start to the 2019-20 Scottish Premiership campaign, demolishing St. Johnstone 7-0 at home before beating Motherwell 5-2 on the road last time out. Also, Celtic’s impressive home form in 2019 has seen them lose just one of their 14 competitive home games since the turn of the year (W11, D2, L1). Ten of those wins have seen Celtic score two or more goals while eight have been accompanied by a clean sheet.

On the other hand, the visitors have secured six wins in their last eight outings (W6, D2), all of which have seen them restrict their rivals to a maximum of one goal per match. Additionally, free-scoring Cluj side has found the net in nine consecutive games ahead of this trip, bagging over 1.5 match goals five times along the way. Still, their indifferent away form when it comes to competitive games can be a problem here (W3, D2, L1), especially as the Railwaymen failed to keep a clean sheet across all of those six matches. An encouraging fact for Dan Petrescu can be that Cluj dodged failure in both of their previous H2H meetings with Celtic (W1, D1), with both of those clashes seeing both teams score.