Sports weekend

The latest from football

Florin Orban, 04.06.2021, 13:46

Romanian League One’s final configuration for the
upcoming season has been decided on Thursday. In the promotion/maintaining playoff
tie, FC Voluntari outclassed Dunarea Calarasi. We recall that in the second leg
of the tie FC Voluntari trounced Dunarea on home turf, 4-nil. Scoring for
Voluntari were the Czech Lukas Droppa, the Spaniard Jefte Betancor, Igor Armaş and
Cosmin Achim, who turned a penalty kick into a goal. In the first leg in
Calarasi, Voluntari also emerged as winners, 2-1. In the previous season,
Dunarea came in 4th in according to the Second league’s Group1 rankings. FC
Voluntari came in 7th according to League One’s Group 2
classification. On Wednesday and also in a League One playoff fixture, CS
Mioveni secured an aggregate win against FC Hermanstadt, with a 2-1 away win in
Medias and a blank draw at home. In the previous season, CS Mioveni came in 3rd
according to League Two’s Group1 rankings. Mioveni are the first second-tier
team to have won a promotion/maintaining playoff tie in League One. We recall
that so far, only League One teams have had the upper hand in such confrontations. At the end of the season, FC
Hermannstadt have been relegated to League Two. Politehnica Iasi and Astra
Giurgiu, two bottom-of-the table teams in League One, have also been relegated
to League Two. The Second League’s first two teams in descending order, FCU
Craiova and Rapid Bucharest, have been promoted to League One.

The headline-hitting event at the weekend is the
friendly match pitting the national squad of Romania against England. The venue
of the game will be a stadium in Middlesbrough in England. The Brits are still
preparing for the European Football championship, which is drawing near. We
recall that our national squad failed to qualify to the event. Ahead of the
friendly against England, the Romanians are trailing a recent unnerving, 1-2
defeat by Georgia behind them. Georgia is 91st-placed according to the world
rankings. Sports media at home has heavily criticized the national squad’s
below-par run in the match against Georgia. Head-coach Mirel Radoi also came under
fire for the faulty way in which he prepared the team and composed the starting
lineup. A satisfactory result in England could ease the tension that has occurred
among the team and among board members of the Romanian Football Federation, where
president Razvan Burleanu as of late has been highly contested because of the
National squad’s disappointing results in recent confrontations.