Sports Weekend

The Romanian women’s volleyball side is making a debut in the European Championship on Saturday

Florin Orban, 21.08.2026, 13:45

The football sides Universitatea Craiova of Romania and Ararat-Armenia ended in a one-all draw their match on ”Ion Oblemenco” stadium in Craiova, on Thursday in the first leg of the Europa League’s play-offs. The Greek Alexandros Malis put the visitors in the lead on the 20^th minute but the Romanians managed an excellent comeback and Nicusor Bancu scored an equalizer 12 minutes from time. Craiova controlled most of the game although they lacked inspiration in front of the visitors’ uprights. The Armenians put up an inspired defence and mounted bold counterattacks and the Brazilian Sandro Lima added a second for the visitors in the 63^rd minute, but the goal got cancelled as it was scored from an offside position. The return game is due in Yerevan on August 27^th at 19 hours, Romania’s time. The winner on aggregate will be playing in the main stage of Europa League and the loser will go to Conference League.

This weekend will be seeing matches counting towards the sixth leg of the Romanian Football Superleague. One game on Friday, when Petrolul Ploiesti takes on Rapid Bucharest. On Saturday, UTA will be playing at home against Corvinul Hunedoara. Then in Bucharest, local side Dinamo plays Universitatea Cluj. On Sunday in Sfantu Gheorghe, central Romania, local side Sepsi OSK will be up against Farul Constanta. The match in Craiova, southern Romania, will be pitching local side Universitatea against FC Voluntari. The day’s last match will be pitching in Cluj, western Romania, the local side, CFR, against FCSB.

The leg’s last matches on Monday will be opposing FC Botoşani to Csikszereda and Oţelul Galaţi to FC Argeş. FCSB tops the ranking with 11 points, followed by Dinamo and FC Argeş, each with 10.

The European Women’s Volleyball Championships kicks off at the end of this week, with matches in four countries, such as Turkiye, Czechia, Azerbaijan and Sweden. Romania takes on the Netherlands on Saturday. Our side is part of Group C whose games will be played in Azerbaijani capital, Baku.  They will be playing the hosts on Monday, and Belgium, a day later. The Romanians will be taking on Portugal next Thursday and on Spain on Friday. The first four teams in the group will qualify for the eighth finals.

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