UEFA Champions League Preview: CFR Cluj vs Basel
Cluj and Basel will be looking to take on one another for the very first time in the history of both teams. Even more neither of the two teams has ever played with a team from the opposing team’s county therefore the clash between the club is bound to present
a new and interesting factor.
Basel managed to qualify for the group stages by victories over VSC Debrecen and Sheriff Tiraspol. The team managed to concede only one goal during the matches played between the teams and went on to score nine times. Cluj on the other hand earned themselves
an automatic qualification for the game thanks to the fact that they won the Romanian Championship last season and were going into the match as the reigning undisputed Romanian victors.
The two teams have a fairly similar domestic record with both of them winning their respective Championships twice from 2008-2010, the only difference between them is that Basel have managed to win two Swiss Cups, while Cluj have won the Romanian Cup thrice
and that has happened during the same number of years.
The last time Cluj participated in the Champions League which was in the 2008-2009 season, the rather unknown Romanian side has the best tackling success ratio out of all the teams while participating in the tournament that year, the team had a 83% successful
tackling percentage which is a tremendous feat in itself and tells us a lot about the determination that the Cluj players have.
This also presents the picture that a lot if high quality defending and chances of goal on the counter attack will be witnessed.
Basel on the other hand managed to win only one point that last time they were in the Champions Leagues' group stages. They also scored two goals while conceding sixteen along the way. The team also had the lowest conversion rate which was just under the
4% mark. Cluj will definitely be looking to capitalise on this.
However a lot can change in a couple of years, it is only notable that Basel have had a perfect qualification campaign leading up to the Group stages and they wouldn't want to throw it all away once again. Cluj on the other hand had to win their domestic
league to make it to Europe’s greatest footballing contest.
Experts strongly believe that if the teams manage to perform at the same level that is expected of them, then this game might just turn out to be a cracker. With both teams realizing that a win over the other would get them three easy points, which could
prove to be very crucial in the long run, they will be looking to go all out.
With that being said, there is a slightly better chance of Cluj coming out on top in this match, this is mainly due to the fact that they have a much stronger defensive line up in comparison to Basel and if the Portuguese team plans on missing the chances
that they get tonight then they might as well pack their bags and head out, because the match would be over before it even begins.
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