RRI Sports Club – Football
The Romanian football champions sustained a shameful defeat, but they move on to the Champions League preliminaries.
Florin Orban, 16.07.2025, 13:45
FCSB football team has qualified for the second preliminary round of the Champions League. On Tuesday, away from home, coach Elias Charalambous’s team lost the second leg of the match against Inter Club d’Escaldes, the champion of Andorra, score 1 to 2, but they are moving on after winning last week, score 3-1, in the first leg in Bucharest. The defeat in Andorra, however, raises many question marks regarding the game of the Romanian champions. Although it has a group of players with a much higher value, FCSB was dominated by its opponent, a small but ambitious team, which administered one of the most shameful defeats in history. In the second preliminary round of the Champions League, FCSB will face the team KF Shkendija, the champion of North Macedonia. The Balkan team won, on Tuesday, in Skopje, against the Welsh team from The New Saints score 2-1, after extra time. In the first leg, the score was tied, 0-0. The Romanian champions will play the first leg away from home next Tuesday, and the second leg in Bucharest, a week later.
On Thursday, in the first preliminary round of the Europa League, the second leg, CFR Cluj, the holder of the Romanian Cup, will take on, at home, the Hungarian team Paks. In the first match, in Hungary, the score was equal, 0 to 0. CFR did not have its main scorer, Louis Munteanu, in the squad, and it is not clear whether they will use him in the return match. According to Agerpres, the club’s management decided to spare him because in the coming period there is a possibility for him to be transferred abroad for a significant amount. Returning to Paks, let’s note that the opponent of CFR Cluj on Thursday is the winner of the Hungarian Cup for the second consecutive year. Last season, the team was eliminated from the Europa League preliminaries by Corvinul Hunedoara, the winner of the 2023 – 2024 edition of the Romanian Cup. (LS)
