Best-placed are Viitorul from Constanta. In the first leg of the third preliminary round Gheorghe Hagi\u2019s trainees outclassed Cyprus champions APOEL Nicosia 1-nil in the southeastern Romanian town of Ovidiu.<\/p>\n
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After an unassuming beginning Romania\u2019s young champions took control of the game and had the upper hand all throughout the first half. The second half of the match was little bit more balanced, yet on the pitch Viitorul had more opportunities to score than their opponents.<\/p>\n
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The goal occurred in minute 75. With a shot from 30 meters, Cristian Manea flawlessly turned a free kick into a goal, scoring Viitorul\u2019s first goal in a European Cups fixture. Towards the end of the game, Viitorul had missed another opportunity to score. However, George Tucudean was given an early bath after he got yellow-booked too many times.<\/p>\n
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The second leg of the tie pitting Viitorul Constanta against APOEL Nicosia is scheduled on Wednesday August 2nd, in Cyprus. We recall that APOEL Nicosia\u2019s best performance so far occurred in the Champions League\u2019s 2011-2012 season, when APOEL reached as far as the quarterfinals.<\/p>\n
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The other Romanian team in the League\u2019s preliminary round, vice-champions Football Club FCSB (formerly known as Steaua), on the National Arena in Bucharest, on Tuesday took on Czech contenders Viktoria Plze\u0148, with 34,000 football fans watching the game.<\/p>\n
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Steaua were held to a 2-all draw, while Plze\u0148 had a 1-nil and a 2-1 lead, respectively, during the game, thanks to the goals scored by Michael Krmencik, on 23 minutes and Jan Kopic in minute 53. Scoring for FCSB were Constantin Budescu on 37 minutes and Portuguese Felipe Teixeira in the 61st minute. Towards the end of the game the best footballer on the pitch, Constantin Budescu sustained an injury and will be unavailable for this coming Wednesday\u2019s return leg, away from home.<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Teams representing Romania in the Champions League stand good chances to go through to the playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":117043,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[32162,34896,31072],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-117042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-fcsb","tag-viitorul","tag-viktoria-plzen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n