CFR Cluj v Man Utd: Romanians to give Utd a fright in Transylvania

Manchester United make the trip to Romania with defensive issues to ponder after Tottenham hit three at Old Trafford, which saw their goals against tally rise to 10 in eight games.

The Red Devils are priced up at 8/13 and, despite their concerns at the back, will surely have too much for Cluj here.

Anything other than a United win can be regarded as an upset and, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s men desperate to avoid a second helping of last season’s humiliating group stage exit from the Champions League, they can’t afford to be dropping points against such minnows, home or away.

Cluj, a 9/2 shot to score the home win, proved they’ve got something about them by seeing off Basel – who pushed United out the exit door last term – in the final play-off round and then showed some class to upstage Braga against the odds in their opening game.

Rafael Bastos was the star of the show that day, bagging a brace for his side and, with United far from watertight at the back, 10/1 makes him a good outside bet to open the scoring at the Constantin Radulescu stadium.

United have gone behind in half of their games this term which adds value to this price, they’ve also ended up winning three of these games. The 4/1 on offer for them to do that again here is well worth having a punt on.

Michael Carrick, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs have all been left at home with Premier League commitments in mind. The latter two were left out when United took on Cluj’s compatriots Otelul Galati last season, where they cruised to successive 2-0 victories. Ladbrokes are offering 13/2 for the Red Devils to make it a hat-trick of wins in this fashion without their two midfield stalwarts.

All odds and markets accurate as of time and date of publication