RRI Sports Club – Football

Romanian football sides, FCSB and Universitatea Craiova, will be playing in the European competitions on Thursday

Florin Orban, 26.11.2025, 13:45

This week will see matches part of the European football competitions for clubs. UEFA Europa League has come to its fifth leg and the Romanian side in this competition FCSB will be playing Serbian side Red Star Belgrade in an away match.  At the moment Romania’s champions are ranking 31^st in the League’s standings.

The trainees of Cypriote Elia Charalambous have won only their first match in the season, that against the Dutch from Go Ahead Eagles, upon which they lost the other three against Young Boys Bern, Bologna and FC Basel.

The defending champions of Serbia fare better, four points ahead, on the 26^th position in the rankings. Red Star Belgrade kicked off the present Europa League season with a home draw against Celtic Glasgow, one-all. Then they lost to Porto 1-2 and 0-2 to Sporting Braga. They secured a one-nil home win against Lille in early November.

In the Serbian championship Red Star comes second two points less than leader Partisan Belgrade but has a game in hand. In their head-to-head match in September Red Star secured a 2-1 win. However, they recently lost two games, one of them away to Javor on Sunday.

In the Romanian Superleague, FCSB is actually facing one of its worst seasons so far, ranking 10^th in the standings, four places and five points away from the area, which leads to playoffs. They lost six out of the 17 matches played in the championship while the club’s leaders and fans are having a difficult time trying to wrap their heads around the situation. FCSB presently boasts one of the most valuable lineups they ever had and have many times proved they can take on every redoubtable opponent in Europe. They drew their latest match against Petrolul one-all in Bucharest.

Also on Thursday, Universitatea Craiova will be playing German side Mainz, in the fourth leg of the UEFA Conference League. With a win, a draw and a defeat Craiova ranks 20^th with four points.

They kicked off with a defeat 2-0 at Rakow in Poland, they secured a one-all home draw against the Armenian champions Noah, upon which they outperformed Rapid Vienna one-nil. German side Mainz is the third in the Conference League with three wins out of three matches: 1-0 to Omonia Nicosia, 1-0 to Bosnian side Zrinjski Mostar and 2-1 against Fiorentina.

Mainz ranks 17^th in the Bundesliga, the last but one position. Last Friday they obtained a one-all draw against Hoffenheim. Craiova ranks third in the Romanian Superleague and recently secured a 2-1 away win against FC Argeş.

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