RRI Sports Club– Football
Two Romanian football teams will play in European competitions on Thursday.
Florin Orban, 01.10.2025, 13:45
This autumn promises to be generous for football fans in Romania. Beyond the country’s Super League matches, we have the Romanian national team’s October and November games. Adding to all these are the matches of two Romanian teams in European competitions. Both of them will play on Thursday: FCSB in the second round of the Europa League, and Universitatea Craiova, in the debut match of the Conference League.
FCSB have already played a match in the Europa League. Last Thursday, they defeated the Dutch team Go Ahead Eagles, away from home, 1-0. The Romanian champions were dominated throughout the match, but they defended well and managed dangerous counter-attacks. They scored early on (min. 13) thanks to David Miculescu, then did nothing but keep the result unchanged.
On Thursday, FCSB meet the Swiss team Young Boys Bern, in Bucharest. A balanced match is expected, with the Romanian team seen in a slightly better position. FCSB had a weak start in the domestic championship, but they won on Sunday, 1-0 against a good and ambitious team, Oțelul Galați. Still, for the time being FCSB only ranks 11th in the standings, out of 16 clubs in the current Super League edition.
Young Boys Bern rank second in the Swiss Super League, after seven rounds, currently only outperformed by St. Gallen. They only lost one match in the championship, two rounds ago, 0-1 in Aarau. On Sunday, they beat Thun at home 4-2. However, in the debut in the Europa League group stage, they lost at home 1-4 to the Greek team Panathinaikos.
Universitatea Craiova play in the group stage of a European competition for the first time. They make their debut away from home against the Polish team Rakow. The Czestochowa-based club is not a major European name, but it has been around for over a hundred years. It came to the attention of specialists in 2021, when it won the Polish Cup, and proved its worth 2 years later, when it won the championship. They are currently 11th placed in the Polish top league, with 3 wins, 2 draws and 4 losses, and in the last round, on Sunday, they lost 1-0 away from home to Widzew Lodz. They also have a Romanian player in the team, the defender Bogdan Racovițan.
Universitatea Craiova are much better known in the continental scene. It was the first Romanian team to qualify for the semi-finals of a European competition, in 1983, when it was one step away from the UEFA Cup final. They are currently leading the Romanian Super League standings, and this weekend they drew at home against Dinamo Bucharest (2-2). (AMP)
