Sports Weekend
A look at the latest developments in Romania's first football league
Florin Orban, 02.05.2025, 13:45
The 2024 – 2025 edition of the Romanian Football Superleague is coming to an end. Four legs have been left of the competition’s play-off stage, which will designate the champion side and Romania’s representatives in the Conference League. The play-out stage, which designates the sides that will demote to the second league and the play-offs for staying and promoting in the Superleague, has three more legs.
This weekend will be seeing the matches counting towards the seventh leg of the two final phases. On Friday, Poli Iasi takes on Sepsi Sf. Gheorghe, while on Saturday, Unirea Slobozia plays in Botosani, northern Romania. In Ovidiu, on the Romanian Black Sea coast, local side Farul takes on Gloria Buzau. On Sunday in Galati, the first two sides in the play-out stage, namely Otelul and Hermannstadt, will be playing. On Monday, in Arad, local side UTA will be up against Petrolul Ploiesti.
We recall the first two sides at the end of the play-off stage can make it to the Conference League. They will be playing each other in a tie game and the winner will be taking on the side that ended the play-off stage on the third position, for a direct place in Europa.
However, the most interesting battle is that to avoid demotion. Gloria Buzau is the team ranking last, four points after Unirea Slobozia, the last but one side in the ranking.
In the play-off only one game on Friday: Universitatea Craiova vs. Rapid Bucharest. Saturday will see the derby pitching CFR Cluj and Universitatea, on CFR’s turf.
Another derby on Monday will be pitching on the national Arena in Bucharest, FCSB against their archrivals Dinamo. This derby has a tradition of more than 70 years in the Romanian football. FCSB is in a better shape and has won all the head-to-head games of late. Furthermore, it tops the ranking six points ahead Universitatea Craiova, the side on the second position and stands good chances to win this edition of the championship. However, the matches against Dinamo have always been difficult, irrespective of their position in the standings.
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