A preview of Romanian football teams’ participation in European cups

A preview of Romanian football teams' participation in European cups

România Internațional, 31.07.2018, 12:20

Matches counting
towards the European cups in football are played this week, in the return leg
of the second preliminary round, and three Romanian teams will be trying to
prove their mettle in the competition.

To begin with, CFR
Cluj will play against Swedish contenders Malmo this coming Wednesday, away
from home, in a match counting towards the Champions League’s preliminaries. In
the first leg this past Tuesday in Romania, Malmo secured a 1-nil win thanks to
the goal scored by Carlos Strandberg. More worrying still is the fact that CFR
put on a lackluster performance, with not even an attempted shot on goal all
throughout the game.

Meanwhile, a new
head-coach was appointed for CFR Cluj, the Portuguese António Conceição, who
replaced Edward Iordănescu. We recall the Romanian got the sack after only
three matches at the helm of CFR.

If they win and go through
to the competition’s next phase, CFR Cluj will face the winner of the match
pitting Bulgarian Champions Ludogorets Razgrad against Hungarian champions
Videoton, in a fixture counting towards the Champions League’s third
preliminary round. If they fail to achieve that, CFR will go straight into
Europa League’s third preliminary round.

On Thursday, two
other Romanian teams are due to play in Europa League’s second preliminary
round. Starting 9pm, Viitorul Constranta take on Vitesse Arnhem. In the first
leg in Ovidiu, Viitorul drew against their Dutch contenders, 2-all. Denis
Dragus scored for Viitorul twice, while scoring for Vitesse were the Slovenian Tim Matavz and the Dutch Bryan Linssen. If
they manage to defeat Vitesse, Viitorul will take on the losing team in the
fixture pitting PAOK Thessalonica of Greece against FC Basle of Switzerland, a
match counting towards Champions League’s second preliminary round.

FCSB, formerly
known as Steaua Bucharest are in for an easier job, as the Romanians take on
Slovenian contenders Rudar Velenje in Bucharest tonight, starting 9.30 pm. In
the first leg, FCSB secured a 2-nil win, thanks to goals scored by Dennis Man
and the Portuguese Filipe Teixeira. Interesting to note is the fact that the
Slovenians have never gone past this phase of Europa League, whereas FCSB, in
the previous season, went past the group stage, reaching as far as the round of
32. The winner of the match pitting FCSB against Rudar will take on the winning
side in the match pitting Croatian team Hajduk Split against Bulgarian
opponents Slavia Sofia.