{"id":963326,"date":"2025-12-17T13:45:54","date_gmt":"2025-12-17T11:45:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/?p=963326"},"modified":"2025-12-17T10:27:19","modified_gmt":"2025-12-17T08:27:19","slug":"rri-sports-club-preview-aek-athens-vs-universitatea-craiova","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/rri-sports-club-preview-aek-athens-vs-universitatea-craiova-id963326.html","title":{"rendered":"RRI Sports Club &#8211; Preview: AEK Athens vs. Universitatea Craiova"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Universitatea Craiova stands on the brink of a historic achievement. In its debut season in the revamped European competition format featuring a main league phase, the Romanian club qualified to Europa Conference League and now eyes the knockout rounds. On Thursday, Craiova travels to face Greek side AEK in Athens, where a strong result could secure a spot among the top 24 in the final standings and a direct path to the playoffs. Currently, Universitatea sits 23<sup>rd<\/sup> with 7 points, tied with teams from 20<sup>th<\/sup> to 24<sup>th<\/sup>\u00a0 positions, while those ranked 14<sup>th<\/sup> to 19<sup>th<\/sup> have one more point. AEK ranks 4<sup>th<\/sup> with 10 points, targeting a direct round-of-16 berth via a top-eight finish.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>AEK enjoys home advantage and boasts a higher-valued squad on the transfer market, including Romania international midfielder R\u0103zvan Marin, one of the national team&#8217;s most prized assets. In five Conference League matches so far, AEK has won three, against Aberdeen, Fiorentina and Samsunspor. It drew against Ireland&#8217;s Shamrock Rovers, and lost to Slovenia&#8217;s Celje. In the Greek Super League, after 14 rounds, the team ranks second, one point behind leaders Olympiakos. Recent results include a 0-2 loss to Olympiakos, a 3-2 derby win against arch-rivals Panathinaikos, and a 5-0 away victory at Panetolikos last Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Universitatea Craiova has secured wins over Rapid Vienna and Mainz. It drew against Armenia&#8217;s Noah and lost to Poland&#8217;s Rakow and at home to Sparta Prague. In the domestic championship, Universitatea ranks 4<sup>th<\/sup>, just two points behind leaders Rapid Bucharest, following a 2-0 away win against FC Hermannstadt in Sibiu last Sunday. (VP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Universitatea Craiova stands on the brink of a historic achievement. In its debut season in the revamped European competition format featuring a main league phase, the Romanian club qualified to Europa Conference League and now eyes the knockout rounds. On Thursday, Craiova travels to face Greek side AEK in Athens, where a strong result could [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":93,"featured_media":798111,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40940],"tags":[175136,36335,41150],"coauthors":[113302],"class_list":["post-963326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-aek-athens","tag-europa-conference-league","tag-universitatea-craiova"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>RRI Sports Club - Preview: AEK Athens vs. Universitatea Craiova - Radio Romania International<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rri.ro\/en\/news-and-current-affairs\/sport\/rri-sports-club-preview-aek-athens-vs-universitatea-craiova-id963326.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RRI Sports Club - Preview: AEK Athens vs. Universitatea Craiova - Radio Romania International\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Universitatea Craiova stands on the brink of a historic achievement. 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