Category: Sport

After the wins in Nuremberg and Hertogenbosh, Romanian tennis player Simona Halep went to Wimbledon, but sadly she was eliminated in the second round by sixth seeded Na Li from China. The Romanian player clinched a win in Budapest, which hosted a tournament with 235 thousand dollars in prize money. Halep won the finals against Austrian Yvonne Meusburger to become the second player in the world in terms of tournaments won in 2013 after Serena Williams.

August was a good month for the Romanian fencers, who walked away with three medals from the World championships in Budapest. Tiberiu Dolniceanu from the Romanian delegation stepped onto the third step of the podium in the individual competition and our women’s team also reaped bronze in the team contest. Romania became world vice champion in men’s competition.

The following major competition was the World Athletics Championship in Moscow, where Romania was represented by a 15-athlete delegation, who sadly didn’t live up to expectations. The best Romanian performance in Moscow was a sixth place in the triple jump contest won by Marian Oprea.

Also in August, Simona Halep ranked among the world’s first 20 tennis players. She was seeded 19th in the WTA rankings after winning the tournament in New Haven, Connecticut with prizes of 690 thousand dollars. Halep outperformed third seeded Petra Kvitova from the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2.

September started with medals for the Romanian athletes who stepped onto the podium twice at the World Rowing Championships in South Korea. The Romanian double, made up of Nicoleta Albu and Roxana Cogianu came second in the finals after Great Britain. Silver medals also were won by the Romanian eight, who came after the United States.

Also in September, Romania’s vice champions, the women’s handball side HCM Baia Mare, managed to qualify for the Champions League. Baia Mare won the qualifiers, which it hosted and involved the participation of Danish sides Viborg and Holstebro, and Dutch team Dalfsen.

In early October, Antwerp in Belgium hosted the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships from where Larisa Iordache, from the Romanian delegation walked away with bronze from the floor event.

New performances were obtained by the Romanian tennis players in October as well. The Romanian-Byelorussian pair Tecau-Mirnii won the finals of the ATP tournament in Beijing against the Italians Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi, 6-4, 6-2.

Later in Moscow, Simona Halep won the fifth WTA tournament in her career by beating Australian Samantha Stosur 7-6, 6-2 in the finals. The Romanian — Czech pair Mergea-Rosol clinched a win in the finals of the ATP tournament in Vienna, against Julian Knowle from Austria and Daniel Nestor from Canada. Florin Mergea thus obtained his first ATP title.

November spelt another victory for Halep, who won the Champions Tournament, an event hosted by Bulgarian capital Sofia with prizes of 750 thousand dollars. Halep again defeated Stosur in the finals, 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 ending up on the 11th position in the WTA standings.

Unfortunately November wasn’t a good month for Romania’s women handball side HCM Baia Mare in the Champions League. Our players came close to a surprising result in the season but eventually lost the match against Hungarian side Audi ETO and had to leave the competition. The most important sporting event of December was the World Women’s Handball Championship in Serbia, a competition where players from Romania failed to obtain the desired results and had to leave in the round of 16, following a defeat from Poland.

The month of January 2013 was dominated at international level by tennis competitions. Among the protagonists was the Romanian-Byelorussian pair made up of Horia Tecau and Max Mirnii, who made it to the double finals of the ATP tournament in Sydney. Unfortunately, Tecau and Mirnii were outperformed by brothers Bob and Mike Bryan from the US.

Tennis players from Romania didn’t manage a good show at the Australian Open that followed, as they were eliminated in the very first week of the competition. But Romania fared better in the athletics competition that followed, with two athletes obtaining excellent results in the first leg of the national indoor contests held in Bucharest. Triple jumper Marian Oprea marked his comeback to competitions with a 1.80 meter jump. Mihai Donisan, also from Romania, won the high jump contest with a 2.30-centimeter jump. With such results Oprea and Donisan became leaders of Europe’s indoor athletics season.

The month of February brought further good performances in tennis. Romania’s Davis Cup team qualified for the second round of the Euro-African Zone, after a five-nil win against Denmark.

In spring Romania’s rugby side secured wins against Portugal, Russia and Spain. In March they outperformed Belgium, but ended in a draw their game against Georgia and were edged out of the competition.

The month of March saw the indoor athletics championships in Gothenburg, a competition that wasn’t of good omen for the Romanians, who shamefully came back empty-handed.

Good news came from women’s handball with Oltchim Ramnicu Valcea qualifying for the semis of the Champions League.

The Romanians were stopped in their tracks a month later, by ETO Gyor of Hungary, which won on aggregate.

Albanian capital Tirana in April hosted the European weightlifting championship, from where the Romanian athletes walked away with 12 medals, one gold, five silver and six bronze. Razvan Martin became the gold medallist in the jerk event with a 190 kilogram lift. Martin also stepped on the third step of the podium with a total lift of 346 kilograms.

In the European Gymnastics Championships in Moscow, Romania got seven medals. Larisa Iordache won the beam contest and came second in the all round, vault and floor events. Diana Bulimar walked away with silver from the beam event, winning bronze in the floor competition.

Also in April Lukas Rosol from the Czech Republic won the Romanian Open, an ATP tournament with 410 thousand euros in prize money. Rosol outperformed Guillermo Garcia — Lopez from Spain, 6-3, 6-2 in the finals, but the doubles went to Romanian — Byelorussian pair Tecau –Miirnai, who defeated the Czech-Austrian pair Dlouhy — Marach, 4-6, 6-4, 10-6.

In May, Simona Halep from Romania made it to the semifinals of the international tennis tournament in Rome, after having eliminated several top players. She failed to reach the finals after she had lost the match against the competition’s odds-on favourite Serena Williams. Horia Tecau and Max Mirnii were also stopped in the semis of the double contest by twins Bob and Mike Bryan of the USA.

In June the Spanish city of Seville played venue for the European Rowing Championship. Romania obtained three medals, two gold and one silver. Romania’s women double and eights became European champions, while our men’s four came second in the competition.

Bogdan Juratoni, from the Romanian delegation obtained a silver medal at the European boxing championship in Minsk. The European fencing tournaments in Croatia were a good opportunity for the Romanian fencers to prove themselves. Ana Maria Branza and Tiberiu Dolniceanu reaped gold in the epee and saber contests. Romania’s women epee and men saber teams came second in the competition.

The European Kayak-canoe championship was held in Portugal in June, where Romanians won two silver and four bronze medals.

Also in June, Simona Halep won the single contest of the WTA tournament in Nuremberg with 235 thousand dollars in prize money after a 6-3, 6-3 win against Andrea Petkovic from Germany.

In fencing, Ana-Maria Branza was designated the best fencer of 2013, after winning the European individual and team epee titles and ranked 3rd with the Romanian women’s fencing team at the World Championships. Also this year, Branza was picked best athlete by her club Steaua. Ana-Maria Branza wants to keep a high standard throughout next year, when she expects to defend her titles and face even more competition. In rugby, Steaua was designated best team in 2013, when it won the Romanian Cup.

It’s been an action-packed year for Romanian athletics. Our athletes were involved in several local, regional and global events, such as the University World Games, the Olympic Festival of European Youth or the Francophone Games. Romania grabbed a total of 24 medals, of which 9 gold, 8 silver and 7 bronze. The Romanian Athletics Federation has awarded the “athlete of the year” distinction to Romanian triple jumper Marian Oprea, who ranked 6th at this year’s World Championships. Ranking 2nd in the athletics standings was Romania’s 4x400m relay team, made up of Bianca Razor, Mirela Lavric, Sanda Belgyan, Adelina Pastor and Alina Panaite. Ranking third in the standings was Florentina Marincu, who won the long jump and triple jump gold medals at this year’s edition of the World Junior Championships.

Overall, Romanian sports reported a visible downward trend, failing to obtain a gold medal in an Olympic discipline in senior competitions. Romanian athletes won only 3 silver medals, in rowing and fencing, but the event will no longer be included in the 2016 Olympic Games. Also, Romania walked home with 4 bronze medals, in kayak-canoeing, gymnastics, and fencing. The same negative trend was reported in athletics.

Judoka Andreea Chitu, European vice-champion and 5th placed at the World Championships, has been designated athlete of the year by the Prahova County Directorate for Sports and Youth. Chitu, who competes in the 52-kg category, currently competes for CSM Ploiesti and Steaua Bucharest.

The best teams of 2013 are Romanian Football Cup winner Petrolul Ploiesti, a team that also played in the Europa League preliminaries and CSU Asesoft Ploiesti, Romania’s national basketball champions, currently playing the EuroCup groups.

Romania’s football champion team Steaua tonight will be playing their last game in this year’s edition of the European club competitions. In London, in the 6th leg of the Champions League’s group stage, Steaua will be taking on Chelsea. For the Romanian side, tonight’s game is a no-stake confrontation for the group standings, given that Steaua cannot avid their bottom-of-the-table position in Group E. The English giants have already made headway into the Champions League’s round of last 16, but they are in dire need of a win, if they want to secure the top position in their group, irrespective of who the winner is in the Gelsenkirchen game pitting German strongholds Scahlke against Swiss side Basle.

In a press conference yesterday, Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho confirmed Ashley Cole’s return to Chelsea’s lineup in the game against Steaua. We recall that in the past week the Portuguese has opted for the Spaniard Cesar Azpilcueta for the left-hand side lane of his defensive lineup. Mourinho also said he did not rate Chelsea as a favorite to winning the Champions League this season. According to Mourinho, this year’s prospective winners of the trophy are Bayern Munich, Barcelona FC or Real Madrid.

Steaua;s manager Laurentiu Reghecampf said his team was under no pressure ahead of the confrontation against Chelsea. “Our footballers will be much more detached, I hope they will put on a good performance, so that we can manage a good result. I think footballers understood my message; I know Chelsea very well, and I am fully aware of their potential” Agerpress quoted Reghecampf as telling a press conference on Tuesday. He went on to say that Steaua’s footballers should have learned something from the Champions League confrontations, which were a huge opportunity for the younger players to gain experience.

We recall the game pitting Chelsea against Steaua will be broadcast live on the frequencies of Radio Romania International’ s Romanian service.

The international gymnastics season is in full swing, with competitions counting towards the International Federation World Cup taking place last weekend. The last such event in the world circuit was held in Glasgow, Scotland.

Romanian gymnast Larisa Iordache dominated the women’s all-around event, obtaining an overall score of 57.932 points. She was followed by the American gymnast Elizabeth Price at a difference of nearly 0.6 points and Vanessa Ferrari of Italy, who was 1.3 points behind the Romanian gymnast.

For her achievement, we have designated Larisa Iordache Athlete of the Week on RRI.

In the vault event, Larisa outperformed Asuka Teramoto of Japan and Elizabeth Price of the US. In the floor competition, the Romanian ranked first, followed by the same Ferrari and Price. The beam event had the same ranking, with the Romanian in first place. Only in the uneven bars event was Iordache surpassed by the gymnast from the United States.

Larisa Iordache was born on June 19, 1996 in Bucharest. She took up professional gymnastics at the Deva National Sports High School. She was drafted in Romania’s Olympic squad, with which she currently trains in Izvorani, close to Bucharest. She made her senior debut at the 2012 European Championships in Brussels, where she grabbed three medals: gold in the floor and team events and silver in the beam event. At the 2012 London Olympics she won bronze with Romania’s team. In 2013, at the European Championships in Moscow, she won gold in the beam event, and silver in the all-around, floor and vault events. Also this year, she won bronze in the floor event at the World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium.

The highlight of the week in handball is the start of the World Women Handball Championship due to begin later this week in Serbia. Romania is in Group D, alongside Hungary, the Czech Republic, Germany, Australia and Tunisia. The Serbian city of Novi Sad will be hosting all Group D fixtures. The Romanian players, managed by Gheorghe Tadici, will play their first game on Saturday against Tunisia.

On Monday, Romania take on Australia, followed by a difficult game against Germany one day later. In another difficult game, Romania will meet Hungary on the 12th of December. In their last group game, they will face the Czech side on the 13th of December.

Montenegro, France, Holland, South Korea, the Dominican Republic and Congo play in Group A, Serbia, Denmark, Brazil, Japan, China and Algeria play in Group B, while Norway, Poland, Angola, Spain, Argentina and Paraguay are in Group C.

The top four squads in each group will qualify for the round of last 16, which will be held on the 15th and 16th of December in Belgrade and Novi Sad. The quarterfinals will take place on the 18th of December. The semifinals are scheduled for Friday, the 20th of December, while the final is hosted by Belgrade on the 22nd of December.

To prepare for the World Championship, Romania played a number of friendly games. In November, they played two games against Denmark, both of which they won, 23 to 22 and again 26 to 21. Romania then took part in a tournament in Paris where they beat Japan 23 to 18 and lost to France 22 to 27.

Romanian boxer Ionut Ion, better known by his ring name Jo Jo Dan, has become the second challenger for the world IBF welterweight belt.

At the end of last week, in a professional boxing gala held in the Canadian city of Quebec, Jo Jo Dan defeated the Canadian Kevin Bizier on points. The match had a total of 12 rounds.

The same gala saw the World WBC light heavyweight champion Adonis Stevenson pulling a technical KO over Tony Bellew of the UK in round 6.

With his win in Quebec, Jo Jo Dan has won the North American Boxing Association and IBF Inter-Continental belts. For his remarkable achievement, we have designated Jo Jo Dan Athlete of the Week on RRI.

Aged 32, Jo Jo Dan has had 32 wins throughout his professional career, of which 17 by knockout, and 2 defeats.

He was born in Giurgiu, southern Romania, on August 9, 1981. As a professional boxer he won his first belt, namely the light welterweight North American Boxing Association belt in 2007, following a 12th-round KO over Paul Delgado of the United States. As part of the same gala held in Montreal, another Romanian boxer Lucian Bute would become the world’s IBF super middleweight champion.

At the end of 2008, Jo Jo Dan also won the WBC Continental Americas belt after a win in Ploiesti over Miguel Casillas of Mexico.

In 2010 his ascension to the world’s top boxers was thwarted by Selcuk Aydin of Turkey, who defeated Jo Jo Dan in a match in Istanbul after the referees’ controversial decision. In 2011 he also lost the rematch against Aydin, held also in Turkey in Trabzon. He managed to move over this difficult time and made his spectacular comeback into the boxing ring. Jo Jo Dan is now very close to becoming first challenger for the IBF world belt.

More than 22 thousand euros were at stake for the IDM Bucharest International Bowling Open. The competition is part of the European Tenpin Bowling Association’s official calendar. We recall the aforementioned Association is the European body patronizing the tenpin bowling.

For our listeners who may wonder what the main differences are between tenpin bowling, which is mostly spread in America, and our traditional pin game, we recall that in bowling the balls have holes the thrower may use if he wants to direct the ball in a special way. Then in the target area there are only ninepins in the game’s European version, so to speak.

Coming back to the Open in Bucharest, we should also say that for the startup it brought some of the world’ s top players at the moment, among whom the Americans Brian Voss and Brian Valenta, last year’s Norwegian champion Bjorn Rudshagen, the Republic of Ireland’s champion Barry Foley and last year’ winner Ianis Stathatos from Greece.

Playing the finals were Rudshaegn and Stathatos. The Norwegian outclassed his opponent with two games to nil. On points, that was 279 to 259 and 246 to 222, respectively.

As for the Romanian players, they were unable to make it to the quarterfinals. Best placed was Romeo Gagenoiu, who came in 11th, in the competition’s final rankings. On behalf of the event’s organizers, IDM”S PR manager Dragos Tigoinau said: ” Given the players’ satisfaction this year, we may say it is still a successful tournament. And the standard is getting higher by the year. This year we even had three perfect games, that is 300 points games, one game for each of the previous editions, when we did not have something like that. This happens every time the standard is very high and we have very good players, who are always capable of adapting to the circumstances on the lane “.

Romania’s national team tonight will be facing a daunting task as they’re only a whisk away from succeeding a most notable performance. If they win the return playoff match against Greece by 2-nil, Romania’s national squad will secure their ticket to the World Cup next year, for the first time since 1998. Bucharest’s National Arena awaits more than 50,000 fans to support their favorite team.

A quick look back now at what happened this past Friday, in the first leg of the tie. In Piraeus, Greece sealed a 3-1 win. Scoring for them were Kostas Mitroglou in 14 and 66 minutes, and Dimitris Salpingidis on 21 minutes. Bogdan Stancu scored for the Romanians in minute 19.

Ahead of tonight’s game, manager Victor Piturca’s problems with his lineup are indeed very serious. Not being able to make it to the pitch tonight are midfielders Alexandru Bourceanu and Costin Lazar, both footballers being suspended. Another player in the midfield, Mihai Pintilli has sustained an injury. However, fullback Vlad Chiriches will be included in tonight’s lineup. Last week Chiriches sustained a nasal pyramid fracture and will be wearing a special plastic mask for tonight’s game. Also, keeper Ciprian Tatarusanu recovered after having missed out on the game in Piraeus because of some health problems. According to Agerpress, Piturca might also summon Banel Nicolita, who apparently will be in for Gabriel Torje, a footballer who sadly managed to put on a totally lackluster performance in the first leg in Piraeus.

There’s another footballer who’s highly likely to step onto the pitch from the very first minute, namely Alexandru Maxim who is in top shape playing for his German club Stuttgart. Maxim is by all means a must for the national squad, if an offensive game could turn the tables for Romania.

Greece has only one lineup problem, since their captain Kostas Katsouranis was suspended for receiving a yellow booking in the first leg.

A team of referees from Serbia was selected for tonight’s game, scheduled to kick-start at 21 hours. The team leader is Milorad Mazic, who has been an international referee since 2009. The return game pitting Romania against Greece will enjoy a live transmission on Radio Romania International’ s Romanian language frequencies.

Romania’s water polo champion team CSM Digi Oradea has scored an absolute first in their career. At the endpoint of an exceptional performance in the competition’s preliminaries, CSM have made headway into the Champions League’s knockout stage.

CSM Oradea’s European adventure kick-started in Kragujevac, Serbia, in September, with the League’s preliminary first round. In Group B, the Romanians snatched three wins, against Hanover in Germany, in the game against French team Montpellier and in the confrontation against Montenegrin team Budva, respectively. CSM’s draw against Volgograd from Russia and the defeat they sustained against host team Radnicki was not a stumbling block for the Romanians to make headway into the competition.

In the second preliminary round, the northwestern Romanian city of Oradea played host to the Champions League’s Group D. This time the Romanians got it all right; since their scheduled games were home confrontations, CSM won all their scheduled matches, first the game against German side Duisburg, then the match against Marseille from France and the game against Hungary’s vice-champion team Szolnok.

In the qualifications’ third round, CSM Oradea took on yet another powerful contender, Sintez Kazan from Russia.In the tie’s first home game, CSM Oradea snatched a 13-to-8 win, while in Russia Sintez Kazan managed a 10 –7 win. On aggregate, however, the score line definitely favored the Romanians.

So Romania’s champion tem CSM Digi Oradea, for the first time ever, have made it into the Champions League’s knockout stage. In Group B, CSM will play against Galatasaray Istanbul, Wasserfreunde Spandau from Berlin, Italy’s Brescia and Serbian strongholds, Partizan Raiffeisem Belgrade. Joining them will be the winner of the game pitting Vouliagmeni from Greece against Radnicki Kragujevac from Serbia.

Romania needed a win in the match against Estonia on Tuesday night, in order to secure second place in Group D, allowing the team to play in the 2014 World Cup playoffs.

And the team grabbed a victory, thanks to Marika, who scored twice on minutes 30 and 81, respectively.

The Romanian national football team needed 3 points (a victory) against Estonia, in order to advance to the next stage, but that also depended on the other group fixture pitting Turkey on home turf against the Netherlands. Turkey lost to the Dutch team, 2-nil.

Estonia was no easy opponent for Romania, the team being capable of producing surprises, such as the 2-all draw against the Netherlands at home. In the 2012 European Championship qualifiers, Estonia had a remarkable run, qualifying to the playoffs.

In order to secure second place in Group D, which would allow the team to play in the 2014 World Cup playoffs, Romania needs a win in the match against Estonia tonight. Coach Victor Piturca wants to put on a good display of football, with as many goals on the scoreboard as possible. “Our only option is a win, so we’ve prepared the match thoroughly. We hope to pull a good game on Tuesday evening and to win without any worries on the ground”, Victor Piturca said.

For Romania to advance to the next stage, it needs 3 points against Estonia, but that also depends on the other group fixture pitting Turkey on home turf against the Netherlands. Turkey must draw or lose against the Dutch team. In the worst-case scenario, in case of a narrow win for the Turkish side in Istanbul, Romania must win at a difference of at least 5 goals against Estonia, which would guarantee the Romanian side a better goal-average, and thus secure them the second place in the group standings.

The only absence for Romania is fullback Vlad Chiriches, who has been suspended for one match for reaching the yellow card limit. Victor Piturca chose to rest some of the first-team regulars in the match against Andorra, hoping they would make a difference in the match against Estonia.

On the other hand, Estonia is no easy opponent for Romania. They are a team capable of producing unpleasant surprises, such as the 2-all draw against the Netherlands at home. In the 2012 European Championship qualifiers, Estonia had a remarkable run, qualifying to the playoffs. Coach Tarmo Ruutli said luck would decide who will play in the 2014 World Cup playoffs, Romania or Turkey. “Romania and Turkey are both strong teams, almost equals, and whoever has luck on their side will play in the playoffs”, Ruutli said on Monday evening.

Only 2,500 tickets of a total of 50,000 were sold prior to tonight’s match. Victor Piturca believes the National Arena Stadium will be packed. “I have little concern about the crowd in the stands. I am confident many will come to see us play”. Over 700 riot police officers will ensure all public security and safety measures throughout the entire evening. The match is due to kick off at 21h00, Bucharest time.

The World Gymnastics Championships were held last week in the Belgian city of Antwerp. Romania was represented both in the men’s and in the women’s competition. Our athletes’ main objective, namely of bringing home at least one medal, was achieved. Although Larisa Iordache won bronze in the floor finals, Romania’s medal list could have been much longer.

In the men’s competition our athletes fell short of expectations. Flavius Koczi, Cristian Bataga, Ovidiu Buidoso and Andrei Munteau had disappointing performances, failing to qualify to the finals. Marius Berbecar was the only Romanian competitor to qualify to the vault finals, where he ranked 7th. Berbecar also qualified to the parallel bars final, but failed to complete a swing element and thus finished in 6th place.

In the women’s competition, Larisa Iordache held good chances of grabbing a medal after the qualifiers, both in the individual all-round event, as well as in the beam and floor finals. Larisa fell off during her beam routine, both on Friday’s individual all-round finals and on Sunday’s beam finals. She made up for her disappointing performance in the floor finals, where she grabbed bronze.

Sandra Izbasa’s floor routine was a medal until the last diagonal, when she suffered a mislanding, just like with her routine at the 2012 London Olympics. Thus Izbasa ended in the competition in 7th place.

The bitter conclusion following this year’s edition of the World Championships is that the face of Romanian gymnastics has lost some of its former glow, although our country did grab a medal. With the gymnast pool growing thinner by the year, our Romanian gymnasts hold fewer chances of grabbing medals. Conversely, other countries such as the United Kingdom, Italy and the Netherlands have reported huge progress, while the United States, China and Russia have consolidated their lead.

The Romanian football strongholds Steaua Bucharest tonight have the chance of a resounding comeback. Romania’ s champion team will go against English giants Chelsea London. We recall Chelsea this past spring ousted Steaua from the Europa League eighth finals. Subsequently Chelsea won the competition. Now the two squads are pitted against each other in Group E of the Champions’ League. Both teams have sustained defeats in the first round of the European competition. Steaua conceded a 3-nil defeat in their away game against Schalke 04 from Germany, while on home turf Chelsea lost to Swiss team Basle, 2-1.

For tonight’s confrontation in Bucharest, Cheslea cannot rely on one of their leading regulars: the Belgian Eden Hazard, who did not even travel to Bucharest. Steaua’s Mihai Pintilii ‘s presence on the pitch is uncertain, since yesterday Pintilii sustained an injury during the official training session. Neither Cristian Tanase has completely recovered, yet he is expected to be included among the regulars in tonight’s game.

The name of the skipper Steaua’s manager Laurentiu Reghecampf will throw on the pitch is also uncertain. We recall in the game against Schalke in Gelsenkirchen Steaua’ s lineup included the Greek Pantelis Kapetanos for that position. Tonight, however, the Italian Federico Piovaccari is likely to be spearheading Steaua’s attacking lineup.

Ahead of tonight’s game Steaua on home ground defeated Poli Timisoara, 3-nil, and holds the runner-up position in Romanian’s league one championship, on a par with Astra Giurgiu, but with a game which is still pending on their record sheet. As for Chelsea, they managed a 1-all draw away from home against Tottenham. At the moment Chelsea are 5th-placed in the Premiership.

In the other Group E game, German side Schalke 04 will take on the local side FC Basle on the latter’s ground.

Besides 18 first-leaguers, the event has also brought together, 8 second leaguers, three elevens from the third league, two elevens from the fourth league as well as Ripensia Timisoara, from the fifth league, which is bearing the name of a team that was famous in Romania in the inter-war period.

In fact, Ripensia walked away with the first Romania’s Cup by beating the first-league Universitatea Cluj in the finals. It’s a coincidence that the two sides have again been pitted against each other in this stage of the prestigious Romanian football tournament. On Tuesday, FC Vaslui, an ambitious first-leaguer from Eastern Romania takes on CSM Resita, from the second league, while Chindia Targoviste, also from the second league is up against Sageata Navodari, a team from the Romanian Black Sea coast. Corona Brasov takes on Sports Club Bacau, a second-leaguer based in Eastern Romania, while FCM Dorohoi, from the third league, will be squaring up against Viitorul Constanta. FC Bihor is due to take on Poli Timisoara in a regional derby. Tuesday’s last game will be opposing Dinamo Bucharest, holder of 13 Romania’s cups, and Sanatatea Cluj, a football side from the third Romanian football league.

On Wednesday, Gloria Buzau, from the second football league, will be facing FC Botosani, from northern Romania, which is considered this season’s revelation, while Petrolistul Boldesti, from the fourth league will be playing against Gaz Metan Medias. Romania’s representative in the Europa League, Pandurii Tg. Jiu will be playing against Farul Constanta. Wednesday will also see the game between two football sides, which started off on the wrong foot this season and are now at the bottom of the first football standings, FC Brasov and CFR Cluj respectively. Universitatea Craiova, from the second league will be facing Petrolul Ploiesti, holder of the previous edition of Romania’s football cup.

Romania’s Football Cup is due to end on Thursday with the game opposing Otelul Galati to Concordia Chiajna. Astra Giurgiu, from southern Romania, will be playing against second leaguer ACS Berceni. Rapid Bucharest, which is boasting 13 trophies in this competition, but is currently playing in the second football league, will be up against Ceahlaul Piatra Neamt. Romania’s champions, Steaua Bucharest, with a record number of trophies won in this competition — 21, will apparently have an easy task against Avantul Barsana from the fourth league.

In the event of a draw, the fate of the round of 32 matches will be decided in the injury time or at the penalty shootouts.