Excellent result for Steaua, now there is a huge chance to go into the CL Group stage.. And for the return leg I’ll be in Romania!! Will watch it on TV, can’t wait
Poor game for Steaua. Their level of play must improve if they expect to be in the CL much longer. If it wasn't for the lucky equalizer I would say Steaua is out, but luckily they still have a shot. Here's the Petre Marin equalizer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzP8zY8Y0Vw
Dinamo wins 1-0 on a Munteanu 77th minute goal. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrxdkCLWR7w Look at the conditions in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkQah4eAQLs Rapid Bucharest lost 1-0 on a 92nd goal by FK Sarajevo.
Champions League, 3rd qualifying round, second leg. August 23rd, TVR1 20:30 (Romanian time) Steaua Bucuresti - Standard Liege (Belgium) First leg finished 2 - 2. Probable formation for Steaua: Code: Carlos P. Marin - D. Goian - E. Baciu - Nesu Nicolita - Lovin - Paraschiv - Cristocea Oprita - N. Dica On the bench: Cernea, B. Panait, V. Badea, Bostina, Saban, G. Coman, Ochirosii Injured: M. Radoi, V. Iacob Suspended: Ghionea
Steaua Bucuresti - Standard Liege (Belgium) 2 - 1 (1 - 1) 3' [0 - 1] M. Jovanovic 35' [1 - 1] V. Badea 51' [2 - 1] V. Badea 81' R.S. Pinto (Standard Liege) - sent off. Steaua will play in the Champions League group stage after 10 years. Tomorrow is the draw - 19.00 Romanian time.
UEFA Cup, 2nd qualifying round, 2nd leg: Today, 19:30, TVR 2 Rapid Bucuresti - FK Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina) Rapid lost the first leg in Sarajevo 0 - 1. Today, 21:00, TVR 1 Beitar Jerusalem (Israel) - Dinamo Bucuresti Dinamo won the first leg 1 - 0. The game will be played in Sofia.
Congrats guys! While we at Levski savour our success, I am personally sure that Steaua and Romanian football will do even better than anyone could have expected. Eastern Europe is on the march to overtake Europe!
Rapid Bucuresti - FK Sarajevo (Bosnia-Herzegovina) 2 - 0 (1 - 0) 39' [1 - 0] M.M. Buga 90' [2 - 0] V. Moldovan Rapid through 2 - 1 on aggregate. Beitar Jerusalem (Israel) - Dinamo Bucuresti 1 - 1 (1 - 1) Dinamo through 2 - 1 on aggregate. 4' [1 - 0] B. Itzhaki 25' [1 - 1] C.I. Niculescu (or an own goal by Ghershom) Both teams will be seeded in the draw for Round 1 taking place today at 14:00 (Romanian time)
Possible opponents: Rapid: West Ham United (England), CD Nacional (Portugal), Trabzonspor (Turkey), Lokomotiv Sofia (Bulgaria), Rabotnicki Skopje (Macedonia). Dinamo: Tottenham Hotspur (England), Groningen (Netherlands), Skoda Xanthi (Greece), FC Sion (Switzerland), MFK Ruzomberok (Slovakia). The draw will take place at 14:00 (Romanian time).
Steaua drew Real Madrid, Dynamo Kiev, and Lyon. Tough draw but some good exposure and money possible.
Steaua will go further in Ch. League...imposible is nothing...Ghencea Stadium will be like hell...we defeated teams as Valencia...at that time Valencia was the best team in the world (2004), was the champions in Spain and the winners of uefa cup...and we won !!! So Steaua will win with Real and Dinamo Kiyv and will and as tie with Lyonnais...all this in Ghencea
Steaua is very unlucky with this draw. We can cause upsets but lets face it, RM and Lyon are favourites to win this group and thus to qualify. However i am still quite confident that we won't lose any of the games played on home ground. If we manage scrape wins(and not to lose of course in the other home games) from these matches(against Dinamo Kiev at least) we hold a great chance to move forward . The away games will be difficult. Draws will "suffice". If we manage to hold our own against at least one of the two giants in away games, i think we will qualify from 2nd spot(provided that we perform well against Dinamo Kiev). The problem is as it follows. In the knock out against Standard Liege we were on the receiving end of 3 goals. That's unacceptable for a team that wants a good run in Europe. Of course one might say that Rapaic was lucky to score 2 goals in the first game but still, i hope we learnt our lesson(especially not to give away easy free kicks). Radoi is a great miss and honestly, with that in mind i think our defense will be our main weakness. We are pretty solid in midfield and in attack. For Steaua's sake, i hope Oprita is benched despite his prestation in the last match. He is not good enough to show up against world class powers. P.S. I'm a Rapid fan(not from Giulesti though, and not under the Grant bridge ) and i really hope you do well. The league 1 is still too weak for such rivalries and all romanian supporters should stand up for all romanian teams in Europe.
Wednesday, September 13th Champions League, Group E 21:45 Dynamo Kyiv (Ukraine) - Steaua Bucuresti (PRO TV) Match background from uefa.com Underdogs have their tails up With Real Madrid CF and Olympique Lyonnais heading the billing in Group E, the meeting between FC Dynamo Kyiv and FC Steaua Bucuresti may be seen by some observers as the first round in a battle for third place. After all it is now seven seasons since Dynamo last advanced to the final 16, while Steaua have been waiting fully ten years just to get this far. Yet these underdogs have nothing to lose and will both know that a winning start in Kiev could lead to even better things. Qualifying wins • Both teams negotiated two qualifying rounds to reach the group stage. Anatoli Demianenko's Dynamo defeated Latvian champions FHK Liepajas Metalurgs in the second qualifying round, winning the first leg 4-1 in Latvia through goals from Diogo Rincón, Maksim Shatskikh, Maris Verpakovskis and Goran Gavrančić. The second-leg victory was even more conclusive as Ruslan Rotan (2), Carlos Corrêa and Serhiy Rebrov scored without reply. • Fenerbahçe SK provided a tougher test in the third qualifying round but Dynamo made it through 5-3 on aggregate. Diogo Rincón (2) and Ayila Yussuf earned them a 3-1 first-leg win in Kiev, before Maksim Shatskikh struck two priceless goals in the return. • Romanian champions Steaua overcame NK Gorica in the second qualifying round. Nicolae Dica and Victoras Iacob served up a 2-0 success in Slovenia before a 3-0 win in the return, Gabriel Bostina, Victoras Iacob, Iulian Ochirosii getting the goals. • It proved tighter against R. Standard de Liège in the third qualifying round. Captain Sorin Paraschiv and Petre Marin netted in a 2-2 draw in Belgium before two Valentin Badea efforts overturned an early Standard goal in Bucharest. Feel-good factor • Ukrainian football was boosted not only by their national team's run to the FIFA World Cup quarter-finals in June but also their Under-21s' success in reaching their UEFA European Championship final. Dynamo's exciting young striker Artem Milevskiy appeared in both tournaments before returning home to sign a new five-year contract. • Both clubs have already won a piece of silverware this season. Dynamo overcame champions FC Shakhtar Donetsk 2-0 to lift the Ukrainian Super Cup, while Cosmin Olaroiu's Steaua defeated AFC Rapid Bucuresti 1-0 in the Romanian curtain-raiser. Super Cup past • It is now 20 years since Steaua won the European Champion Clubs' Cup and that same season – 1985/86 – Dynamo won the second of their two UEFA Cup Winners' Cups, setting up the teams' first ever meeting in the 1986/87 UEFA Super Cup. Steaua won the match in Monaco 1-0 through a Gheorghe Hagi goal. • Dynamo were victorious when they next met, claiming a 5-3 aggregate win in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round in 2001/02.
Match preview from uefa.com Steaua undeterred by Kiev trip FC Steaua Bucuresti's return to Europe's premier club competition after ten years has already got off to a shaky start and they face a tricky test in their UEFA Champions League Group E opener against an FC Dynamo Kyiv side also in contention again after a rare absence last season. Plane drama Steaua's plane was forced back to Bucharest on Tuesday when a problem with one of the windows was detected 20 minutes into the flight to Kiev. Once in the Romanian capital, the defect was fixed and the same plane departed for the Ukraine, where the Steaua squad finally arrived safely. Dynamo problems If the 1986 European champions' preparations have trumped them for drama, Dynamo's have hardly been ideal either. Coach Anatoli Demianenko has had to contend without a number of key players. Latvia forward Maris Verpakovskis and Ukraine midfielder Ruslan Rotan - who both sustained thigh injuries in recent international matches - have joined Artem Milevskiy and Badr El Kaddouri on the absentee list, along with the suspended Goran Sabljić. Good start vital Demianenko is in philosophical mood, however, telling his pre-match press conference: "We have a lot of injured players. But what can we do about that? One must win by quality, not by quantity. It is very important to make a good start tomorrow, by giving the kind of performance we are capable of." Steaua too have plenty to offer, as Demianenko knows all too well. "They are a pretty good team who deserved to be in the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup last season. But they are just another opponent for us. We will take them on and we can win. The main thing is not to play by the opponents' rules, but to play our own game." Playing to win Steaua might be stymied by knee injuries to captain Mirel Radoi and striker Victoras Iacob, but coach Cosmin Olaroiu is nonetheless relishing Steaua's return to the European top table. He said: "It has been ten years since our last appearance in the UEFA Champions League. It has been a long time and we and our supporters have really had to wait for this moment." He is now hoping last term's UEFA Cup experience will prove beneficial. "We learnt a lot from last year when we got to the UEFA Cup semis. I think we are ready to be competitive in the UEFA Champions League. We are here in Kiev to play the Steaua style of football: we always play to win, never to draw." Biggest match Banel Nicolita, one of the stars of Steaua's UEFA Cup exploits, sums up what this game means to the Romanian title-holders, saying: "It is the match of my career so far. We have only one player who has appeared in the UEFA Champions League before so this is a big game for all of us." Probable teams Dynamo: Olexandr Shovkovskiy; Marjan Marković, Rodrigo, Rodolfo, Andriy Nesmachniy; Oleh Gusev, Ayila Yussuf, Carlos Corrêa, Serhiy Rebrov; Diogo Rincón; Maksim Shatskikh. Steaua: Carlos Alberto Fernandes; Stellian Stancu/Rahamin Saban, Dorin Goian, Sorin Ghionea, Mihai Nesu; Banel Nicolita, Sorin Paraschiv, Florin Lovin, Vasilica Cristocea; Cyril Thereau/Valentin Badea, Nicolae Dica.
Good luck to Steaua, Rapid and Dinamo. Steaua has a good chance for the 3-rd place in the group. Second place will be a pleasant surprise, but I don't think it'll happen, Real and Lyon are too good. Dinamo and Rapid play against average teams, and they can qualify. Will be nice to have 2 teams in UEFA cup. Too bad I can't see Steaua's game.
Amazing.... 3-1 Steaua in the 42nd min. I am happy for you Steaua supporters. I was in RO when Steaua played Standard, it was really crazy, I watched it in the bar with lots of Steaua supporters...