Sports Weekend

A look at the sports action in Romania this weekend.

Florin Orban, 16.11.2018, 12:29

We begin with football. Romania’s Under-21 side drew 3-all against
Belgium in a friendly match held on Thursday in Cluj Napoca. 35 minutes into
the match, Belgium scored first, thanks to their right-back defender, Dion
Cools. Romania’s Denis Dragus equalised from a penalty kick in the extra time
of the fist half. In the second half, Belgium scored two consecutive goals to
take the lead, in the 56th minute, by Aaron Leya Iseka, and again two
minutes later by Isaac Mbenza. Romania dominated the final part of the match
and scored twice, first by Darius Olaru, on minute 90 and then by Andrei
Ciobanu, in the second minute of extra time. Both sides have already qualified
for the 2019 European Under-21 Championship held in Italy and San Marino. The
groups will be established in a drawing of lots in Bologna, on the 23rd
of November.

In other football news, Viitorul Constanta defeated the Bulgarian
champions Ludogorets in a friendly, 2-nil. Mihai Vodut and Andrei Artea scored
for Viitorul, whose manager is the former Romanian international player
Gheorghe Hagi. Missing from Viitorul’s line-up for this match were a number of
important players, such as Ianis Hagi and Tudor Baluta, who were selected for
the national side’s Nations League matches against Lithuania and Montenegro, as
well as Denis Dragus, Virgil Ghita, Andrei Ciobanu and Radu Boboc, who were
capped for Romania’s under-21 side and the match against Belgium. Ludogorets
also played without some key players such as the Romanian internationals Cosmin
Moti and Claudiu Keseriu.

Still from the world of football, Romania’s national side face
Lithuania on Saturday in Ploiesti in a Nations League match. There will be no
spectators in the stadium as Romania were penalised for their behaviour at the
match against Serbia in Bucharest in October. Serbia top Group 4 of League C
with 8 points, followed by Montenegro with 7 points, Romania with 6 and
Lithuania with no points.

We’ll end with news from handball, as a number of European cups matches
are scheduled this weekend. All Romanian sides are in action on Sunday. In the
men’s Champions League, Dinamo Bucharest face the Norwegian side Elverum away.
In the women’s competition, CSM Bucharest, who have already qualified for the
next stage, face the German side Bietigheim at home. Three other women’s sides are
playing for a place in the EHF Cup group stage. The trophy holder, SCM Craiova,
seem the most likely to achieve that. They defeated the German side Borussia
Dortmund in the first leg of the final qualifying round, while SCM Ramnicu
Valcea lost to the Danish side Ikast and Magura Cisnadie were defeated by the
Russian side Zvezda Zvenigorod.