Sports flash
The latest from football, tennis, water polo and women's volleyball
Florin Orban, 26.05.2022, 13:45
The Europa Conference League in football final was hosted by the Albanian capital city of Tirana. This past Wednesday, AS Rome defeated Dutch challengers Feyenoord Rotterdam, 1-nil. An all-Romanian crew of referees coordinated the game, with István Kovács as the main referee, while Vasile Florin Marinescu and Ovidiu Artene were his assistants.
In Craiova on Friday, Universitatea Craiova face FC Botosani in a playoff fixture. The winning squad will be the third team that will represent Romania in the preliminaries of the Conference Leagues next edition. Universitatea Craiova came in 3rd according to League One s Group 2 rankings, while FC Botosani were the runner-up team in Group 1.
Currently at the top of the table in Group 1, Sepsi Sfântu Gheorghe have won the Romanian Cup in football and have advanced directly to the Conference League qualifiers, so in the play- off fixture against Universitatea Craiova, FC Botosani are in for Sepsi Sfantu Gheorghe.
This past Wednesday, for the 18th time in the clubs history, Steaua Bucharest won the mens water polo championship. In the fourth match as part of the National Superleague, Steaua Bucharest grabbed a 12-4 away win against CSM Oradea. On aggregate, Aurelian Georgescus trainees have won, 3-1. The final was played according to the best in five teams system. In the first two fixtures as part of the final, in Bucharest, Steaua had won 10-8 and 11-9, respectively, after the penalty shootouts, while in Oradea, on Tuesday, Steaua won yet again, 9-8. Steaua have thus won their sixth consecutive title, bar the 2019-2020 season, which was cancelled because of the pandemic.
In the second round as part of the Grand Slam tournament in Roland Garros, Romanian tennis player Sorana Cîrstea this past Wednesday sustained a 3-6, 6-2, 6-nil defeat by Sloane Stephens of the US. For her run in Roland Garros, the Romanian will receive a cheque worth 84, 000 Euros and 70 WTA points.
In the southern Romanian town of Alexandria on Wednesday, in a fixture counting towards Group C as part of the Golden League competition in volleyball, Romanian womens national team were defeated by the Ukrainian national squad, 1-3. Ukraine thus made up for the 2-3 defeat they sustained this past Tuesday, also in Alexandria. Hungary is also part of Group C and Romania is pitted against Hungary, on May 28 in Budapest. The first two teams in descending order book their ticket for the Golden Leagues final tournament. (EN)
