A preview of Romanian participation in European football cups

Three Romanian football teams are playing in the preliminary second round of European football competitions.

Florin Orban, 22.07.2014, 13:24

The first Romanian team to fight for a place in the Champions League’s 3rd preliminary round is Steaua Bucharest. In a game venued by the National Arena, Constantin Galca’s trainees will be taking on Norway’s champions Stromsgodset. In last week’s away match in Drammen, Steaua snatched a 1-nil win, with Gabriel Iancu scoring in the very first minutes of the second half.

Steaua turned out to be the better team on the pitch, yet they failed to live up to the excellent run they had last season, which means manager Galca has a lot more work to do with his trainees. On the other hand, Steaua lacked some of its key footballers, who moved to other clubs, as the transfer season is in full swing. Among them are former captain Mihai Pintillii, goalkeeper Ciprian Tatarusanu, Macedonian defender Daniel Georgievski and Italian striker Federico Piovaccari. Furthermore, Steaua has not yet made any notable transfers to the team.

If they beat Stormsgodset, Steaua will be taking on the winner of the game between Georgia’s Dinamo Tbilisi and Aktobe from Kazakhstan.

On Thursday night, two Romanian teams will be playing in Europa League’s second leg, counting towards the competition’s second preliminary round. Petrolul from Ploiesti has sound chances to make headway into the competition, after last week they succeeded a 2-nil home win against Albanian squad Flamurtari Vlora. Scoring for Petrolul were the Dutch Gevaro Nepomuceno on 77 minutes and the Nigerian-born Israeli footballer Toto Tamuz in minute 84.

Petrolul should have no problem in Albania, since they have a strong lineup, including one of Romania’s best footballers at the moment, Adrian Mutu. If they qualify, Petrolul will be facing Czech side Victoria Plzen, in the 3rd preliminary round.

The other Romanian team, CFR from Cluj, are faced with a much more difficult job. On Thursday CFR will be taking on Serbian side Jagodina, and the Romanians only managed a blank draw in last week’s home match. However, in the past Cluj proved they could brace up for the crucial games, so the Romanians do stand real chances to make headway into the competition.

If they win, CFR will be taking on the winner of the game pitting Dinamo Minsk from Belarus against Myllykosken Pallo from Finland.