Sports Flash

This week sees the start of the matches of the Erste Liga regional ice hockey competition final between two teams from Romania.

Florin Orban, 09.04.2026, 13:45

The great Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu, who died on Tuesday, will be buried on Friday in Bucharest, with military honors. His body was laid to rest on Wednesday at the National Arena, where football fans can pay their last respects until Thursday evening. Mircea Lucescu was urgently hospitalized at the University Emergency Hospital in Bucharest on March 29, after he fell ill during a technical session preceding a training session of the national football team. Despite several interventions, his health deteriorated, and on Tuesday evening, April 7, the hospital announced his death.

Now news related to the current competitions. On Thursday and Friday the first two matches of the Erste Liga regional ice hockey competition final will take place, between Corona Braşov and ACSH Gheorgheni. It is the second time in a row that two teams from Romania have reached the final. Last year, two teams from Harghita County faced off. After a final in the “best of seven games” system, ACSH Gheorgheni defeated SCM Miercurea Ciuc 4-2 and won the Erste Liga trophy for the second time. This year, the team from Gheorgheni advanced to the semifinals against the Hungarian group Jegesmedvék from Miskolc 4-1. For the other place in the final, Corona Braşov needed seven games in the confrontation with Budapest Jegkorong Akademia. It won with the general score 4-3, after a decisive match played on Sunday in the ice rink in Braşov, which it won 4-2. Now, Corona is facing its second League trophy, after the trophy won in 2024.

At the weekend matches will be played in the Romanian Super League. In the play-out, where the stakes are to avoid relegation to the second league, on Friday, Hermannstadt plays, in Sibiu, with Farul Constanţa. On Saturday, in Arad, UTA faces FC Botoşani, and in Bucharest, FCSB hosts Oţelul Galaţi. On Sunday, Unirea Slobozia plays, at home, with Petrolul Ploieşti, and on Monday, in Clinceni, Metaloglobus faces Csikszereda. In the play-off, where the teams are fighting for the title of new Romanian champion, the first match of the round takes place on Sunday, in Cluj, between CFR and Dinamo Bucharest. On Monday, Rapid will face FC Argeş in Bucharest, and Universitatea Cluj will meet, at home, Universitatea Craiova. The two student teams occupy the first two places in the standings, with Cluj having a better goal difference. (LS)