Can the Romanians hold on to Intertoto glory?

By: Ian Rose | July 28th, 2007

Today, the first five of the eleven UEFA Cup spots will be decided in the Intertoto Cup. Two of the highlight matches feature Romanian clubs who scored big in the first leg, and look to hold on as the tie goes on the road. Gloria Bistriţa is up 2-1 on Atlético Madrid after the first leg, but due to the away goal, Madrid will win on just a 1-0 performance. Oţelul Galaţi is in the exact same spot against the Black Sea Storm of Trabzonspor as the tie goes to Turkey. Both of these teams are dangerous, and I predict at least one of the Romanian sides to finally falter and lose, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see one go through. Statistically, Madrid is most likely to win, but Trabzonspor has had an impressive run, so these should both be fantastic matches.

In other matches today:

Sampdoria hosts Cherno More Varna of Bulgaria. The Italians hold a 1-0 lead after the first leg.
Lens hosts Chornomorets Odessa, after a 0-0 first leg.
Vetra travels to Blackburn to take on Rovers, and will be hard-pressed to recoil after a 2-0 Rovers win in the opening leg.

My predictions:
Gloria Bistriţa over Atlético Madrid (FALSE - looks like I picked the wrong Romanians. Madrid on away goals, 2-2 agg.)
Trabzonspor over Oţelul Galaţi (FALSE - Galaţi repeated their 2-1 win for a total of 4-2 over the Storm!)
Sampdoria over Cherno (TRUE - 2-0 aggregate)
Lens over Odessa (TRUE - 3-1 aggregate)
Blackburn over Vetra (TRUE - Blackburn win on 6-0 aggregate)

More later, after all today’s action. I’m going to go see if I can find the Rovers match on in a pub, but since I’m currently in London, the Arsenal-PSG match will likely be the only thing on.