Sports Weekend
The latest from football
Florin Orban, 16.08.2024, 13:45
The CFR Cluj football team qualified, on Thursday, in the play-off for a place in the groups of the European Conference League competition. The Transylvanians defeated the Israeli team Maccabi Petah Tikva, 1-0, at home, in the second leg of the third preliminary round of the competition. The only goal of the game was scored by the Croatian Anton Kresic, in the 50th minute. CFR Cluj prevailed in the first leg with the same score. In the play-off, Cluj will take on the Cypriot team Paphos. The first leg of the double confrontation will take place next Thursday, on home turf, and the return, in two weeks, in Cyprus.
The second Romanian team present in the third round of the Conference League preliminaries, Corvinul Hunedoara, failed to qualify. On Wednesday, the holder of the Romanian Cup was defeated, in Almaty, Kazakhstan, by FC Astana 6-1. FC Astana had also won the game in Romania, in Sibiu, 2-1. On Tuesday, FCSB left the preliminaries of the Champions League, after losing the second leg of the third preliminary round, at home, defeated 2-3 by the Czech champion, Sparta Prague. Next week, FCSB will face, in the Europa League group stage, the Austrian team LASK Linz, playing the first away game, and in two weeks they will play the return leg, in Bucharest.
More news from football. This weekend will see games counting for the sixth stage of the Romanian Superleague championship. Two games are due on Friday: Unirea Slobozia will take on Petrolul Ploiesti and Universitatea Craiova will play against Gloria Buzău. On Saturday, FC Botoşani will receive the visit of the Arad team UTA, then FCSB will face Politehnica Iaşi on home turf. A historic derby of the Romanian championship is scheduled for Sunday, between the Bucharest teams Rapid and Dinamo. The first confrontation took place on September 9, 1948, when Rapid was called CFR Bucharest. Back then, they won 1-0 and facing Dynamo with their first defeat in the Romanian championship! It was only three years later that Dinamo also won, more precisely on March 31, 1951, with 3-2, when the railway workers’ team was called Locomotiva.
Back to this year’s edition of the Super League, let’s note that, on Monday, Universitatea Cluj will play against Sepsi OSK Sfântu Gheorghe, on home turf, and Farul Constanţa will play, in Ovidiu, against FC Hermannstadt. The match between Otelul Galati and CFR Cluj has been postponed. After five stages, Craiova and Oţelul, still undefeated, were leading the standings, each with 11 points, three points behind the rest of the platoon.
