Football Flash

Romanian football squad Steaua Bucharest has got through to the Champions League’s playoffs. In the second leg of the third preliminary round, Romania’s vice-champions on home turf grabbed a 2-nil win against Czech contenders Sparta Prague. In the first leg the score was 1-all. Under the circumstances, Steaua booked their tickets for the European autumn. If they miss the opportunity to go past the Champions League’s playoffs, Steaua play in Europa League’s group stage.

Florin Orban, 04.08.2016, 13:03

Steaua got the upper hand for the most part of the match hosted by the National Arena in Bucharest. Laurentiu Reghcampf’s trainees drew first blood on 31 minutes when the ball shot by Nicolae Stanciu from the edge of the box touched the net right below Sparta’s crossbar. Since minute 51 Sparta had been one man shy on the pitch for the rest of the game as Jakub Brabec got yellow-booked for the second time and had to leave the pitch. On 62 minutes Stanciu scored yet again, shooting the ball from outside the box.

This coming Friday Steaua will be informed on their next playoff fixture, most likely including such teams as Manchester City, Porto, Villarreal, Ajax Amsterdam and Borussia Mönchengladbach.

Also on Wednesday, Astra Giurgiu wasted the chance to qualify for the Champions League’s playoffs, since they sustained a 3-nil defeat at the hands of FC Copenhagen, in a fixture hosted by the Telia Parken stadium in Denmark’s capital city. We recall that the first leg had ended 1-all. Astra Giurgiu are now entitled to play in Europa League’s playoffs and will be informed on their forthcoming fixture also on Friday.

(Translated by E. Nasta)