January 30, 2021
It was a Saturday 12.15 lunchtime kick-off local time in Romania ( 10.15am in the UK ) for this Round 20 Casa Liga 1 encounter being streamed on Bet365.com and featured a battle between 10th and 5th. Academica comfortably won the reverse fixture 2-0 in the September sunshine but the forecast for today was for dry weather with a high of 5 degrees. However, that would be much better than the minus temperatures and snow some of the Romanian games in January have been played in !
The home side play in the self-named 7,814 capacity Gaz Metan Stadium in Medias, in Sibiu County, Transylvania. Medias, is 330km north-west of Bucharest and is situated on the site of the largest natural gas field in Romania. Its football club are sponsored by Romgaz, the 70% state owned largest supplier of natural gas in the country.
At the winter break Gaz Metan lay in 12th place in the league table, having had an up and down first half of the season, recording wins at Cluj, Arad and Politehnica Iasi but lost 4 times at home. In their four matches after the resumption they recorded two 2-1 home wins ( over FC Voluntari and Politehnica Iasi ) extending their winning home run to three. However, away from home they drew at Arges Pitesti ( 1-1 ) and controversially lost 1-2 at Dinamo Bucharest with the winning goal involving the Gaz Metan keeper being bundled into the net off the ball by a Dinamo forward, and a handball penalty not being awarded in their favour late in the game. Nevertheless, they had risen to 10th place at the start of the day.
The coach of Gaz Metan is Jorge Costa, the Porto and Charlton Athletic Portuguese International centre back who won 50 caps for his country. He was famously part of the Young Fish Costa Fortune Charlton Premiership backline in 2001/02 !
Three members of Gaz Metan’s large foreign legion were offloaded during the short winter break, with Czech forward Tomas Smola being loaned to Opava, ex Nottingham Forest & Napoli Italian forward Nicolao Dumitru moving to South Korean side Suwon Bluewings and ex Crawley Town Dutch midfielder Moussa Sanoh signing for Maltese side FC Balzan. Ten foreign players remain on their books though.
The departed Nicolao Dumitru tops their goalscoring chart with 7 goals with Ronaldo Deaconu the best of the players still at the club on 5 goals.
Gaz Metan made two changes from their midweek loss at Dinamo Bucharest, with Comoros midfielder Nasser Chamed coming in for Guinea-Bissau international Francisco Junior ( 3 caps ) and midfielder Paul Costea replacing centre forward Luis Nitu. As a result of this change, Portuguese Ricardo Valente moved from a wide role to a more forward central position.
In addition to Chamed and Valente, three other foreign players started : Yuri Matias ( Brazilian centre-back ), Ondrej Baco ( Czech centre-back ) & Bryan Alceus ( Haitian midfielder – 13 caps ) whilst the substitutes included Ze Manuel ( Portuguese winger ), Yves Pambou ( Congolese midfielder – 2 caps ), Roberto Romeo ( Italian winger ) and Idrisa Sambu ( Portuguese forward ).
Clinceni is a village 16km south-west of Bucharest with a population of less than 5,000 inhabitants. This makes them the smallest location in Romania to host top flight football. In 2013 the club was relocated to Clinceni from Buftea, 20km north-west of Bucharest, but moved again the following season to Pitesti, 120km north of Bucharest. However, one season later the club was repurchased by the local commune and moved back to Clinceni !
As the club’s name might suggest, the club have a large youth academy, with reportedly 700 players in its ranks.
Academica started the season slowly, with only one win in their opening 7 encounters but 5 wins and three draws thereafter saw them move up to 5th by the end of 2020. They had lost just twice, both at home ( Cluj 1-2, FCSB 0-2 ) and were unbeaten in all seven away matches, although that include five draws.
However, the restart saw the end of the unbeaten away record, with defeats at CFR Cluj ( 1-3 ) and Chindia Targoviste ( 1-2 ). At home, a 0-0 draw with FC Hermannstadt and 2-1 win over FC Botosani were registered to keep them 5th in the table.
The coach of Academica is Ille Poenaru, and having been appointed in 2018 he is currently the longest serving coach in Liga 1.
Academica also made two changes from their previous starting XI, a midweek win over Botsani, with Slovak Denis Ventura and Razvan Andronic coming into midfield in place of Andrei Cordea and Argentine Juan Cascini. Keeper Octavian Valceanu remained ever present this season.
Bulgarians Asen Chandarov and Tsvetelin Chunchukov started upfront, with Chunchukov the joint top scorer so far with 3 goals. Two other foreigners made the starting XI, French midfielder Thibaut Moulin and Austrian centre-back Mladen Jutric. The other joint top scorer, veteran Moldovan midfielder Eugeniu Cebotaru ( 64 caps ) was on the bench alongside ex Romanian internationals Florin Gardos ( ex-Southampton centre-back – 13 caps ), and midfielder Raul Rusescu ( 10 caps ). 13 different players have found the net for Academica this season.
Reflecting the likelihood of a close match, Academica started as narrow 31/20 favourites with Bet365, with Gaz Metan at 15/8. The draw was 21/10.
At kick-off it was a bright but breezy day although the pitch looked a little uneven and already with a sign of a few divots. Both goalmouths also had bare, muddy patches and although the match was being played behind closed doors, a handful of home fans were visible watching over a wall !
Gaz Metan were playing in all white, with Academica in all blue. However, the visitors were without a shirt sponsor and did not have the players names on the back of their shirts.
It took just 2 minutes for the first yellow card to be brandished, when Ventura cynically brought down Deaconu near the halfway line. The home side dominated possession in the early stages but without creating any danger and the pitch was already quickly cutting-up, no doubt as a result of the unusual seasonal play in the rain, snow and cold of a January winter.
Both sides were forced into substitutions in the first 20 minutes, with Costea going off to be replaced by Ze Manuel for Gaz Metan and Longher being replaced by the podgy Adrian Popa for the visitors.
The play became scrappy as Academica started to get a hold in the match but neither goalkeeper had much to do apart from gather over hit long balls or collect mis-directed crosses. The first half-chance went to Gaz Metan in the 28th minute but Matias’ header from a corner was well wide, and the home side should have taken the lead 3 minutes later when Butean’s long throw was flicked on by Matias but Valente unmarked 6 yards out could only scoop the ball over the bar.
Academica’s first dangerous threat came 3 minutes before half-time when Andronic made space inside the penalty area and delivered a low cross. Fortunately for Gaz Metan, Butean was alert to the danger and was able to slide in, block the cross for a corner and deny Chandarov a tap-in.
It got better for Academica in added on time when the home side were reduced to 10 men. Centre-back Baco appeared to be first to a long ball and played the ball back towards his keeper. However, Chunchukov fell over his outstretched leg and rolled over a couple of times, and Baco was adjudged to have brought down the last man, An incredibly poor decision from the referee, but there is no VAR in Romania !
The first half ended without a single shot on target, but with Gaz Metan having to play the second half with a man less, their odds increased to 15/4 with Academica shortening to 11/8.
Four minutes into the second half Gaz Metan made a tactical change to shore-up their defence, bring on a Ionut Larie as a replacement centre-half to substitute the substitute Ze Manuel. Larie had been ever present up until Christmas so it was hardly weakening the side but unfortunately for Gaz Metan Larie’s first contribution was a decisive impact to give Academica the lead four minutes after his introduction. A long through ball looked harmless enough but Larie and keeper Plesca got in each other’s way, perhaps due to a nudge by Chunchukov, leaving the Bulgarian clear and he rolled the ball into the unguarded net from a fairly tight angle for his 4th goal of the season.
Gaz Metan seemed to be deflated by this and for a while Academica were content to keep possession. In a rare foray forward Popa made a threatening run into the Gaz Metan area only to fall to floor without being challenged. The referee pointed for a goal kick.
Academica’s intent to sit on their lead was further underlined by taking off their goal scorer, and Gaz Metan responded by bringing on two forwards. This positive approach was rewarded with their first meaningful attack of the half with 8 minutes left on the clock.
Deaconu took a left footed free-kick close to the right-side touchline midway into the Academica half, and the ball was allowed to sail unchallenged towards the far post into the 6 yard box. With keeper Valceanu rooted to his line, substitute Idrissa Sambu made enough contact to divert the ball in the opposite direction to leave the keeper helpless as the ball trickled into the corner.
Academica were unable to respond, and it was the home side who came closest to snatching a winner, but a spectacular overhead kick from Matias was pushed away by Valceanu and gratefully cleared for a corner by a defender.
With the match finishing 1-1, both sides stayed in the same place in the table. After playing the second half with 10 men, Gaz Metan will probably be more satisfied with the result, and a point each was probably a fair outcome.
Gaz Metan : Plesca – Butean, Baco, Matias, Trif – Horsia ( Nitu ), Alceus, Deaconu, Chamed, Costea ( Ze Manuel, Larie ), - Valente ( Sambu )
Academica Clinceni : Valceanu – Achim, Jutric, Patriche, Dobrescu – Ventura, Moulin ( Cebotaru ), Andronic, Longher ( Popa ) – Chunchukov ( Markovic ), Chandarov ( Rusescu ).
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYs9i8bfYeU
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