Football Flash
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Florin Orban, 07.06.2018, 13:52
The name of the team that will complete the final League One team-list for the upcoming football season will be made public in less than a week from now. Playoff fixtures are scheduled for Saturday and Wednesday, with FC Voluntari facing Chindia Targoviste on home turf. FC Voluntari is the antepenultimate team and 6th placed in League One’s Group 2. 3rd-placed in the Second League, Chindia Targoviste will be hosting the decisive match this coming Wednesday. We recall that FC Voluntari had also played another playoff fixture to maintain their position in League One, at the end of the 2015-2016 football season, when they outclassed UTA Arad on aggregate, 3-nil and nil-1 respectively.
We recall that in 2018, the bottom-of-the-table and the last but one team in League One’s Group 2, Poli Timisoara and Juventus Bucharest, have been demoted to the second league. Top-of-the -table team in League Two, Dunarea Calarasi, and second-placed FC Hermannstadt have been promoted to League One.
This year, four Romanian teams have made it to the European Cups, a fact which has been officially known since late 2017, when Romania was 17th placed according to UEFA’s country coefficient rankings. Romanian champions CFR Cluj will play in the Champions League’s second preliminary round, with the tie’s first legs scheduled on July 24 and 25, while the return games will be played on July 31st and August 1st. Winner of Romania’s Cup in Football Universitatea Craiova goes to the Europa League’s third preliminary round, with games scheduled on August 9 and 16. Vice-champions FCSB will play in the Europa League’s second preliminary round, scheduled for July 26 and August 2nd. Fourth-placed in League One’s Group 2, Viitorul Constanta is the first to play its game in first preliminary round on July 12 and 19.
We recall that in 2017, best placed in Europa League was FCSB, which managed to go past Europa League’s group stage. However, in the competition’s round of 32, FCSB was outperformed by Italian contenders Lazio.
