Sport Flash

In less than a week, two Romanian football teams will make their debuts in the European competitions qualifiers.

Florin Orban, 02.07.2026, 13:45

Summer training for Romanian football teams is coming to an end. The new competitive season will begin soon, and many teams that had scheduled training camps in cooler parts of Europe have already returned home. The domestic season kicks off with the Romanian Super Cup, which will take place on July 12. Universitatea Craiova, as the winner of both the Superliga and the Romanian Cup, will face Universitatea Cluj, which finished second in the league. The match will be played on Universitatea Craiova’s home field.

Universitatea Craiova held its summer training camp in Austria, in the town of Neustift im Stubaital in the Tyrol region, where it played three friendly matches. They defeated a local team 7-1, then drew 1-1 with Sabah, the Azerbaijani champion, and finally defeated the Ukrainian team Polisia Jitomir 4-3. On July 8, Craiova will face Belarusian champion Vitebsk away from home in the first qualifying round of the Champions League. The match will take place in Hungary. The second leg is scheduled for July 15 in Craiova.

Universitatea Cluj also held its training camp in Austria, choosing the mountain resort of Bad Radkersburg. They lost 1–2 to Croatia’s Under-19 national team, then drew 0–0 with Ujpest Budapest. On Friday, the Transylvanian team will play their final friendly match of the training camp against the Hungarian team Nyíregyháza Spartacus, and will depart for Romania immediately after the final whistle. In the first qualifying round of the UEFA Europa League, Universitatea Cluj will face Ukraine’s vice champions, Dynamo Kyiv. The first match will take place on Thursday, July 9, in Lublin, Poland, followed by the second leg in Cluj a week later.

It’s also worth noting that Romania’s representatives in the third-tier European competition, the Conference League, will enter directly into the second qualifying round. CFR Cluj will face the winner of the match between the Armenian team Alashkert and Elimai Semei from Kazakhstan, with the first leg away on July 23 and the second leg at home on July 30. FCSB will also play on those same days, first away and then at home, against the Latvian team FK Auda. (LS)