Champions are more prepared

Cluj won Romanian Championship for the 4th time in the last 10 years, leaving Steaua Bucureşti in second place. The main players remained for the new season, while Tambe, Males and Lang were added in the squad. Team's preparation started early, due to their obligations for the second qualification round of Champions League, at the end of this month against Malmo. The friendly win 3-0 against Jagiellonia was the most important game for Romania's Champions in this period. 

Craiova won Romania's Cup, first title after their reestablishment in 2013, but also first title after 2000 in general for them. Winning the Cup gave them the ticket for the 3rd qualification round of Europa League. They came in 3rd place in Championship, however the future doesn't look very bright for them, since their most important players like Baluta, Screciu, Roman, Popov, Gustavo and Santos left team, without any significant moves to be made for their replacement. In the last two friendly games they were beaten (0-1) from Varen Nagasaki and (2-3) from UFA, having a quite mediocre performance.

Despite the fact that this final takes place in Craiova, in the state - of - the art 'Stadionul Ion Oblemenco', I will give the lead to Cluj. Champions kept the core of last year's squad, while they started their preparation for the Champions League quite early. On the contrary, Craiova are weakened and more unprepared than their opponent for sure. Win for Cluj at quite decent odds 2.40 is my call