Sports flash

The latest from football, women's and men's handball

Florin Orban, 22.06.2023, 13:45

Matches
counting towards the U-21 European Football Championship’s final tournament
kick-started in Romania and Georgia this past Wednesday. In Bucharest, Romania
sustained a nil-3 defeat by Spain. Also in Bucharest, Ukraine defeated Croatia,
2-nil. In Georgia’s Tbilisi, host country
squad grabbed a 2-nil win against Portugal, while the match pitting The Netherlands
against Belgium ended in an unassuming blank draw.

Also in
news from football, the Romanian teams know who their opponents are, in the European
competitions’ preliminaries. In the Champions League’s first preliminary round,
Farul Constanta goes against Republic of Moldova title holders Sheriff
Tiraspol. Gheorghe Hagi’s trainees play the first leg on home turf in Ovidiu, on
July 11 or 12, while the return leg will be played in Chisinau, on July 18 or
19. In the Europa Conference League’s second preliminary round, FCSB and Sepsi
OSK Sfântu Gheorghe play Bulgarian teams PFC ŢSKA Sofia and FC ŢSKA 1948 Sofia,
respectively. Both legs of the tie are scheduled abroad for the Romanian
teams, on July 27, while the return legs are scheduled on August 3rd on home turf. CFR Cluj takes on Turkey’s Adana Demirspor, with the first leg of the tie
scheduled in Cluj Napoca, on July 27.

In the
Champions League in women’s handball’s next edition, two teams will represent Romania.
Apart from holders CSM Bucharest,
the vice-champion team, Rapid, also got through. We recall that in the League’s
previous edition both
CSM and Rapid reached as far as the quarterfinals, However, in the men’s
version of the League, Dinamo Bucharest’s application to play in the Champions League
was turned down. Holders Dinamo Bucharest will play in the EHF league the next
season.

As part of the European Games in Krakow, Romania’s
women’s three-ex-three basketball team is at the top of the table in Group B,
after the first two fixtures. On Wednesday, Romania defeated Austria, 17-14, and
Germany, 15-13. On Friday, Romania will play its last group match, the fixture
against Greece. The first two teams in descending order advance to the quarterfinals.