Sports weekend
The latest from football, women's tennis and women's handball
Florin Orban, 14.01.2022, 13:45
Winter training sessions are underway for several
Romanian football teams, ahead of the season scheduled to kickstart next week. Holders
CFR are in Spain with a couple of friendly matches on schedule. In Oliva Nova
on Thursday, Dan Petrescu’s trainees grabbed a 1-nil win against 4th-tier
Spanish team La Nucia. CFR’s Gabriel Debeljuh succeeded the only goal of the
game. CFR’s games against Swiss teams St. Gallen and C Lugano, as well as the match
against Hungarian side Ferencvaros have been cancelled by the latter clubs. On Saturday,
holders CFR play another Spanish lower-echelon team, Alzira.
With its training session in Turkey’s
Antalya in progress, FC Botosani sustained a 2-3 defeat by Polish
opponents Lechia Gdansk. Scoring for Marius Croitoru’s trainees were Congolese
footballer Hervé Kage on 15 minutes and Albanian footballer Enriko Papa in minute
53. This coming Sunday, FC Botosani take on Hungary’s Paksi and the National
team of Uganda.
In Melbourne, Romanian tennis player Irina
Bara this past Friday sustained a 2-6, 1-6 defeat by Bulgarian opponent Viktoria
Tomova, in the final round of the Australian Open qualifiers. Coming straight from
the qualifiers, five Romanian tennis players will be included in the tournament’s
women’s singles main draw. They are Simona Halep, Sorana Cîrstea, Irina Begu,
Jaqueline Cristian and Gabriela Ruse.
Fixtures counting towards the Champions League
in women’s handball are to be resumed at the weekend. In Montenegro, CSM
Bucharest play Buducnost Podgorica. Cristina Neagu’s team is 5th-placed
in Group A, with 4 wins and four defeats on its record sheet, while Buducnost is
7th-placed in the group.
Matches counting
towards the 2nd round of the European League’s group stage are also
scheduled at the weekend. In Group B on Saturday, Minaur
Baia Mare take on German team Bietigheim, while in Group C Măgura Cisnădie travel
to Denmark for their match against Herning-Ikast. In Group D, this coming Sunday,
SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea play a home fixture against Hungarian team Vac.
(EN)
