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Florin Orban, 30.03.2017, 13:05
Poli Timişoara, FC Voluntari and CSU Craiova are the first three semifinalists of the Romanian Cup in football. On Tuesday, Poli Timisoara outperformed CFR Cluj 6-5, after extra time and penalty shootouts. From minute 49, Poli had to play without one of its players, as Alin Seroni was eliminated because of his foul on Laurentiu Rus. The scoreboard after the regular 90 minutes indicated a blank draw. The score remained the same even after the extra time. In the penalty shootouts, CFR’s Ionut Daria and Ciprian Deac wasted their opportunities to score, while Poli missed only once, through Bogdan Straut.
On Wednesday, FC Voluntari secured a 2-1 win in the game against the only second league team that made it to the competition, CS Mioveni, a team from Arges county. Guest team Voluntari first scored on 13 minutes through Florin Cernat. CS Mioveni’s Andrei Neagoe provided their equalizer on 35 minutes. During added time FC Voluntari’s Gabriel Deac sealed the fate of the game with one last goal.
In the southern Romanian town of Drobeta Turnu Severin CSU Craiova played their game against Dinamo Bucharest. After a lively confrontation which was marred by a flawed refereeing, the scoreboard indicated a blank draw, a result that remained unchanged after extra time. From minute 63 CSU were deprived of one man on the pitch, following the elimination of Alexandru Băluţă. In the penalty shootouts, Dinamo’s Patrick Petre and Danu Spătaru failed to score, while Craiova’s Vladimir Screciu was the only one who failed to score, so CSU emerged as winners, 6-5.
On Thursday, the last quarterfinals fixture will be pitting Viitorul Constanta against Astra Giurgiu. The semifinals will be played according to a round-robin system on April 26 and May 17, while the final will be played on May 27.