Romanian Cup in football

A review of the match pitting FCSB against Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe

Florin Orban, 23.07.2020, 13:45

Football
Club Steaua Bucharest, FCSB, this past Wednesday won Romanian Cup in football. In
the final, FCSB outclassed Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe, 1-nil. The fixture was hosted
by the Ilie Oana Stadium in Ploiesti, southern Romania. FCSB’s Dennis Man
scored the only goal of the match in minute 65.

FCSB
enjoyed the advantage of ranking as favorites, since they compete in Group 2,
which is domestic League One’s upper echelon. As for Group 1 opponents Sepsi,
the grim prospects of relegation still loomed large, let alone the footballers
state of exhaustion, since they had one match every three days on schedule.

Notwithstanding,
in the first half, Sepsi were in no way the minnows in the match against FCSB,
proving they were a team to be reckoned with. Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe were more
active, quite often dominating FCSB’s half of the pitch. The latter team only
had a couple of counterattacking bouts and several attempted shots on target,
which posed a problem for Sepsi’s goalie Roland Niczuly. In the second half,
Sepsi’s impetus simply fizzled out and FCSB were quick to place themselves in
control. Dennis Man’s goal was scored at random and was made possible by the hesitation
of Sepsi’s defensive lineup. However, the goal occurred quite logically, being
the outcome of FCSB’s performance of the pitch. Several other scoring
opportunities occurred for FCSB later on, yet the team from Bucharest did
little short of wasting them all. FCSB’s job on the pitch was made easier since
Sepsi’s French player Bouhenna got yellow-booked twice in only a couple of
minutes and was eliminated in minute 79. Towards the end of the game, Sepsi’s
pride galvanized the team and they became a little bit more dangerous as Sepsi
managed to advance towards FCSB’s posts for a couple of times. Nonetheless, all
throughout the game, Sepsi did not succeed a single attempted shot on target.

FCSB thus
added the 23rd Cup of Romania to their record. 2015 was the year
when FCSB had last won the cup. Back then the team from Bucharest grabbed a
3-nil win against Universitatea Cluj on the National Arena. For Sepsi, playing
in Romania’s Cup final was an absolute first. FCSB’s win booked them the ticket
for Europa League’s preliminaries. A qualifying League One position has enabled
another Romanian team, FC Botosani, to go through to Europa League as well.

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