RRI Sports Club
A preview of the football game Qarabag versus FCSB
Florin Orban, 22.01.2025, 13:46
Romania’s football champions, FCSB, will be playing their first official international game on Thursday. In the seventh leg of Europa League, the trainees of coach Elias Charalambous are taking on Azerbaijani side, Qarabag, in an away game. This is FCSB’s last but one match in the main group. The Romanians are presently ranking 10th and a win will help them join the first eight sides, which means direct qualification in the competition’s round of sixteen.
Top-tier sides, such as Ajax, Real Sociedad, Roma or Porto are coming after FCSB and unless the Romanians get a better position in the ranking they will be playing tie matches for a place in the round of 16.
We recall that out of the six matches played so far, FCSB has recorded three victories, ended two in a draw and lost only one. In turn, Qarabag has scored only one win and lost five matches.
Unfortunately, for the game in Azerbaijan, coach Charalambous cannot count on his skipper, Darius Olaru, who is recovering from injuries. Without him on the pitch, FCSB managed only a one-all draw in the domestic championship, on their own ground against FC Hermannstadt. FCSB put up a good show and controlled most of the game, but failed to capitalize on many chances. Fullback Valentin Cretu managed the equalizer for FCSB, and that was a goal that he scored after a long time in the FCSB lineup.
In the domestic championships, FCSB comes second, two points after the leader, Universitatea Cluj. At home Qarabag tops the ranking 11 points ahead the runner-up.
FCSB has one more game in hand in the main group of Europa League. They will be up against Manchester United in Bucharest next Thursday. Although presently hankering for good results, Manchester United is still a force to be reckoned with.
(bill)
