Sports Flash
Universitatea Craiova advanced past Vitebsk. Next up is Levski Sofia.
Florin Orban, 16.07.2026, 13:45
The Universitatea Craiova football team has qualified for the second qualifying round of the Champions League. On Wednesday, the Romanian team defeated ML Vitebsk, the champion of Belarus, 1-0 in Craiova in the second leg of the first qualifying round. In the first leg, the Romanian champion had won 4-1 away from home, in Hungary.
Over 14,000 spectators watched the game at Craiova’s Ion Oblemenco Stadium. Universitatea dominated the match and had many scoring opportunities. The visitors were also dangerous, but Craiova goalkeeper Laurenţiu Popescu had a great day and thwarted all of the Belarusians’ attempts to score. Relying on the result from the first leg of the two-leg series, the Craiova team did not push too hard. They didn’t score until stoppage time, when Nicuşor Bancu beat the Belarusian goalkeeper with a well-placed shot from outside the 16-meter box.
In the second qualifying round of the Champions League, Universitatea will face Levski Sofia. The Bulgarian champions eliminated the Bosnian team Borac Banja Luka after a 1-1 draw in the first leg away from home and a 4-0 victory in the second leg in Sofia. The first match between Craiova and Levski will take place next week at Levski’s home stadium.
Next web bring you news from with tennis. The WTA 250 tournament in Iași, with 246,000 euros in prize money, is now without any Romanian players. The last remaining players were eliminated on Wednesday in the doubles competition, right in the first round. Ilinca Amariei and Carmen Herea were defeated 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 by the top seeds, Belgium’s Magali Kempen and Russia’s Alexandra Panova. Alesia Breaz and Cristiana Todoni were also defeated, 6-3, 6-2, by the pair consisting of Spanish player Georgina Garcia Perez and Russian player Alevtina Ibraghimova. The Romanian players did not advance past the first round in singles either. Among Wednesday’s results, Slovenian Tamara Zidanšek moved to the quarterfinals after defeating seventh-seeded Hungarian Anna Bondar 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 in the fourth round. The match lasted three and a half hours. (MI)
