A round up of the weekend’s most important sporting events
Europa League qualifiers were played on Thursday, with matches counting towards the first leg of the second preliminary round. Astra Giurgiu is the only Romanian team competing in Europa League, and on home turf, they grabbed a 3-1 win against contenders Zira FK of Azerbaijan.
Scoring for Astra were Alexandru Ionita on 31 minutes, Alexandru Dandea in minute 55 and the French Anthony Le Talle in the 74th minute of the game. Scoring for Zira FK was Raşad Sadîgov in minute 34.
Astra secured their position in the Europa League preliminaries because they played the Romanian Cup final. Cup winners FC Voluntary were officially denied access to the competition as the application they submitted for the license to play in the European Cups was overdue.
Astra rested most of its star footballers for the summer and came up with a completely new lineup for the game against FK Zira. They succeeded a well-deserved win, but they could have scored more goals had they not wasted a couple of extremely generous chances. For the return leg, scheduled in Baku on July 20th, Astra are the odds-on favorite.
Edition number 100 of the League One championship kick-starts at the weekend. On Friday, CSU Craiova take on Poli Iasi. On Saturday in Chiajna, the local side Concordia face Poli Timisoara, while Bucharest team Dinamo travel to Ploiesti for their fixture against newly-promoted team Juventus.
Two other matches are scheduled on Sunday, as in the southern Romanian town of Giurgiu, Astra take on the other newly promoted team Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe, while on the National Arena in Bucharest, Football Club Steua Bucharest, FCSB, face the new Romanian Cup winner, FC Voluntari. The round’s last two games are scheduled on Monday as Viitorul Constanta go against Gaz Metan medias, while FC Botosani take on CFR Cluj.
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