Sports Flash

Universitatea Craiova’s European journey will be decided next Wednesday in Bănie

Florin Orban, 23.07.2026, 13:45

Universitatea Craiova were beaten 1–0 away from home by Levski Sofia on Wednesday in the first leg of the second qualifying round of the Champions League. The home side’s winning goal was scored early on, in the 8th minute, by defender Kristian Dimitrov, who headed home from the centre of the Craiova penalty area. The Romanian champions then sought an equaliser throughout the match. They had good chances to score but failed to find the net. Levski also came close to scoring, but the score remained unchanged. In conclusion, qualification for the third qualifying round of the Champions League will be decided next week in Craiova. The team that progresses will then face the winner of the tie between Omonia Nicosia, from Cyprus, and Kairat Almaty, from Kazakhstan. In the first leg, the Cypriots won 1–0. The losing side will face, in the third qualifying round of the Europa League, the team that loses the tie between the Azerbaijani side Sabah and the Finnish side KuPS Kuopio. In the first leg, the Azerbaijani side won 1–0.

The World Fencing Championships got underway in Hong Kong on Wednesday. On the first day of competition, Romanian fencers Emma Șonț and Natalia Constantin qualified for the main draw of the women’s individual épée event. In the preliminary round, Emma Șonț defeated France’s Diane von Kerssenbrock and Japan’s No Sungyoun. In the first round of the main draw, Emma will face Italy’s Alberta Santuccio. Natalia Constantin prevailed in the preliminary round against a Venezuelan épée fencer, Clarismar Farias, and then went on to beat Julia Beliaeva of Estonia, a former world champion in the individual event and an Olympic champion with her country’s team in 2021 in Tokyo. In the main draw, Natalia will face Sera Song of South Korea. The first matches in the main draw are scheduled for Saturday morning, whilst the semi-finals and final will take place in the evening. At these championships, the Romanian delegation is pinning its greatest hopes on its sabre fencers. At the European Championships in France, held in June, the men’s sabre team won silver medals, whilst George Dragomir took third place on the podium in the individual event. (MI)