February 19, 2024
These diaries last covered a match from Romania in January 2022 when FC Arges Pitesti beat Dinamo Bucharest 1948 2-1, which was the 7th review written on football in Romania.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2022/01/fc-arges-pitesti-2-1-dinamo-bucharest.html
Today was a meeting between 9th and 5th in the table, although the positions were slightly skewed by being one of the last games to be played in round 26. After today, there were only 4 more rounds of fixtures before the league splits into the play-off rounds, so this was an important match for both sides hoping for a top 6 finish to be in the Championship play-offs.
Farul Constanta Background
Farul Constanta were formed following the merger of FC Viitorul Constanta and second level Farul Constanta, with the newly merged club taking Viitorul’s place in the league for the 2021/22 season. Joint owner, Romanian football legend Gheorghe Hagi, took over the coaching duties and led them to an unexpected league title last season, finishing 7 points ahead of FCSB.
Hagi had previously been owner of Viitorul and built one of the most prestigious footballing academies in the country.
With a population of around 250,000, Constanza is the fifth largest city in Romania and is situated just under 230km east of the capital Bucharest.
Home matches are currently being played in Viitorul’s 4,550 capacity stadium until a new stadium is completed.
Farul apparently translates as Lighthouse, reflecting Constanza’s location on the Black Sea, and the team is also referred to as either the sailors or the sharks.
It would take a miracle for Farul to retain their title, as they started the day 18 points behind runaway leaders FCSB, but they were still in with a good shout of finishing in a place to qualify again for Europe.
Farul had a mixed campaign in Europe this year, going out in their first Champions League Qualifying tie 1-3 on aggregate to Sheriff Tiraspol, but won two ties in Europa Conference League, getting past Armenian side Urartu ( 6-4 on aggregate ) and Estonians Flora Tallinn ( 5-0 on aggregate ) before being eliminated by HJK Helsinki 2-3 on aggregate.
Farul were not represented in the most recent national squad, partly due to ex-Brighton and Hove Albion midfielder Tudor Balenta ( 12 caps ) missing through injury. Young forward Louis Munteanu ( 1 cap ) is on-loan from Fiorentina, who paid a reported €2 million to Viitorul for him, fellow striker Constantin Budescu won 14 caps, ex-Fortuna Dusseldorf midfielder Dragos Nedelcu won 6 caps, and ex-Athletic Bilbao, Aris Salonika and Panathinaikos defensive midfielder Cristian Ganea had 8 caps.
Farul foreign players include long serving Viitorul French full-back Damien Dussaut, who had a short spell with Belgian side St Truiden, ex-Brest Benin defender David Kiki ( 46 caps ), ex-Moeskroen Portuguese midfielder Diogo Queiros, ex-Levski Sofia and Cracovia Brazilian forward Rivaldinho and ex-Samsonspur Ivorian defender Kevin Boli.
Defender Ionut Larie and midfielder Ronaldo Deacanu were both in the Gaz Metan Medias side that played a 1-1 draw featured in these diaries back in January 2021 against Academica Clinceni. Defender Mihai Popescu had played in Scotland for St Mirren, Hearts and Hamilton Academicals.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2021/01/gaz-metan-medias-1-1-academica-clinceni.html
Larie was their top scorer in the league with 7 goals, ahead of Munteanu, Budescu and Rivaldinho, who all had 5 each.
Sepsi OSK Background
Sepsi are located in the town of Sfantu Gheorghe in Transylvania ( 200km north of Bucharest ), where 74% of the 50,000 population are ethnic Hungarians. Sepsi is part of the Hungarian name for the town.
Unusually, Sepsi have received funding from the Hungarian government, as well as sponsorship from several Hungarian companies. Their website in is Hungarian and Romanian, but not English.
Home is the newly built 8,400 capacity Sepsi Arena, which meets UEFA ground grading requirements. The average attendance this season was 3,649, compare to 4,100 last season.
Sepsi finished 6th in 2022/23 but won the Romanian Cup, beating Universitatea Cluj on penalties after a 0-0 draw. This was their second Cup success, after also winning the year before by beating FC Voluntari.
They started the day with a 9-6-10 record but had lost their three most recent games, 1-2 at UTA Arad, 1-3 at home to Univ Craiova and 0-1 at FCSB. The form had been inconsistent as they lost 6 matches on the trot in September and October. However, between those spells they lost just one game in 15 !
Sepsi had a reasonable run in this season’s Europa Conference League, eliminating CSKA Sofia ( 6-0 on aggregate ) and Kazakh side Atobe ( 2-1 after a 1-0 away win ) before bowing out to Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt 4-5 on aggregate after extra-time.
Sepsi’s coach was 61 year old German Bernd Storck, who was at Borussia Dortmund as a player and has had a long and varied career as a manager.
Marius Stefanescu ( 2 caps ) was their top scorer with 9 goals and was in the most recent national squad, together with uncapped wing-back Andreas Dumitrescu, who is on loan from Slavia Prague. Midfielder Cosmin Matei is a former international ( 2 caps ) and played for Dinamo Bucharest, Atromitros and Glenclerbirligi amongst others, and midfielder Kevin Varga won 13 caps. Left-back Florin Stefan also won 1 cap for Romania.
Foreign internationals in their squad today were eg Ujpest, Lugano and LASK Hungarian defender Akos Kecskes ( 6 caps ), ex-Dundee United Slovak striker Pavol Safranko ( 10 caps ), and ex-Lokomotiva Zagreb Albanian midfielder Sherif Kallaku ( 7 caps ) who would not doubt be laying down the law. Venezuelan forward Mario Rondon had 13 caps for his country.
Matchday Information
The journey for Farul supporters was 430km by road, which should normally take around 5 hours.
The weather at the 17.30 local ( 15.30 UK ) kick-off time was cloudy and 7 degrees.
The match was live streamed on Bet365, who made Sepsi evens favourites, with Farul at 23/10 and the draw at 12/5
When the two sides met back in late September, Farul ran out 2-1 winners.
Sepsi were playing in red and white striped shirts, with red shorts and socks. Farul were wearing blue shirts, white shorts and blue socks.
Match Report
There didn’t appear to be a large crowd at the kick-off, but they were making plenty of noise, especially the drummers.
The first chance of the match came to Sepsi in the 2nd minute as Matei took advantage of first a sloppy backward pass and then some poor control to run into the area, but his left footed shot was saved and went off for a corner.
After 5 minutes, Stefan sent a fabulous curling cross from the left over the Farul keeper’s head but Stefanescu, sliding in beyond the far post could only put the ball wide.
Farul came to life and centre-back Popescu headed a corner over the bar from 8 yards. Munteanu then showed good skill to beat Kecskes and Oroian, but ex-Lokeren and Foruna Sittard Slovak centre-back Brantislav Ninaj was covering and on hand to put the ball out for another corner for Farul.
With 11 minutes played, Farul’s Queiros tried his luck from 35 yards but his low bouncing shot was gathered by Niczuly at the second attempt.
The home side had another half chance two minutes later. Stefan again delivered another good cross from wide on the left, this time low and to the centre of the 6 yard box. Both Matei and keeper Buzbuchi went for it, with the Sepsi midfielder getting a touch, but the ball came off the diving keeper and went off for a corner.
Safranko then ran onto a threaded through ball but his shot from wide on the right was partially blocked by Kiki, and the ball ran onto for the keeper to pick-up. A minute later Stefanescu saw his 30 yard left footed effort pushed away by the diving Farul keeper and the rebound was cleared for a corner by Larie before two Sepsi attackers could capitalise.
The game was fast and frenetic with both side looking to get the ball forward quickly, and denying the opposition anytime on the ball.
After 26 minutes Matei had his 25 yard attempt well held by the diving Buzbuchi low at this right-hand post. Three minutes later Farul midfielder Ganea intercepted an attempted pass down the Sepsi right-hand channel and quickly played forward to Budescu to run down the left at the Sepsi defence. His ball across the 18 yard line reached Deaconu, whose left-footed effort sailed narrowly over the bar.
Farul’s Kiki then played a wayward pass across the half-way line to straight to Matei, who immediately released Stefanescu, but again the low ball into the area was partially blocked and was gathered by the Farul keeper.
Farul won a corner in the 35th minute, from which Larie, under pressure from Kecskes, headed just wide from 6 yard at the back stick.
Kallaku then stepped inside Grameni and sent an awkwardly bouncing shot from 20 yards goalwards but Buzbuchi again showed good hands to hold onto the effort.
Stefan then delivered another teasing cross from the left for Sepsi but Stefanescu stretching to reach at the back post and under pressure from Ganea, could only volley into the stand behind the goal.
It was scoreless at the interval and despite the possession statistics showing Sepsi had enjoyed 59%, it felt like an even game, with few clear-cut chances and with most of the attempts either coming from long range or headers under pressure from crosses or corners.
There was a relatively quiet start to the second half, with Sepsi keeper Niczuly making one commanding catch and Matei shooting horribly wide from 20 yards.
The home side got the ball into the back of the net in the 50th minute. Stefanescu’s 25 yard left-footer after a strong run was parried by Buzbuchi, and Safranko bravely got to the ball ahead of Ganea to finish and was injured in the process. However, on the replay it looked like Safrenko was offside, and after a VAR review, the goal was disallowed and the score remained at 0-0.
Farul immediately made a triple substitution in an attempt to change the pattern of the match., and we had to wait under the 55th minute for the game’s first yellow card, when Deaconu stepped on Ciobotariu’s foot.
The visitors had probably their best chance of the match to date in the 58th minute. A chip towards the left hand side by Nedelcu found Munteanu in space, who lifted the ball over the advancing keeper. However, Kecskes was able to make an acrobatic clearance a couple of yards from the goal-line and to prevent Rivaldinho putting the ball into the empty net.
After 62 minutes Rivaldinho saw his shot from the edge of the area deflect of Ninaj for a corner to Farul, from which the ball went across the face of the goal with no-one able to get on the end of it. A minute later Munteanu was again clear on the left and after his shot was well parried by Niczuly, Rivaldinho blasted the rebound high over the bar. However, it wouldn’t have counted as the linesman’s flag was raised against Munteanu.
Five minutes later Larie produced a text-book sliding tackle to prevent Safranko running at goal but nothing came from the subsequent Sepsi corner.
More drama occurred in the 71st minute. Niczuly made a flying punch to clear a Farul free-kick from the left, colliding with team-mate Ninaj in the process. When Farul managed to get the ball back into the danger zone, Niczuly pushed away Munteanu’s goal bound prod and remained on the floor injured after the ball was clear. He was able to continue after several minutes treatment but had to be substituted 10 minutes from time.
With 7 minutes left on the clock, Rondon was unmarked in the Farul area, but he totally mistimed his near-post header, which went closer to the corner flag than the goal.
Rivaldinho then cut in from the left but his right footed shot bounced into the arms of the substitute Sepsi keeper.
Sepsi then conceded a free-kick a few yards outside of their area. Despite a Sepsi defender encroaching to less than 5 yards of the kick it was taken and deflected off the defensive war. Kiki managed to get to the loose ball inside the area on the left and turned it back to the 6 yard line, where Grameni took one touch then turned and side-footed the ball towards the centre of the goal. Although Varga on the line managed to get a foot to the ball, he couldn’t change its direction, and by the time Dumitrescu could hack clear, the ball looked to have crossed the line. After a little confusion the referee awarded the goal, which was confirmed by VAR. Grameni had his second goal of the season and it was 1-0 to Farul after 86 minutes.
Sepsi attacked furiously in search of an equaliser, and Boli needed to produce a good header to clear a menacing left-wing cross away for a corner, from which Buzbuchi made a good punch to clear. With 6 minutes of time to be added, Farul survived some head-tennis in their area, but then safely saw out the closing moments to take the three points.
With the victory Farul moved up to 4th in the table, whilst Sepsi dropped to 10th but still two points off 6th place, but have now lost 4 matches on the trot.
This felt like watching a League One match in England. Hi-tempo, high on effort and endeavour, solid defences, robust challenges, missed placed passes and only the occasion glimpse of quality, but it was good to watch !
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFEus2L8joM
Sepsi OSK : Niczuly ( Moldovan ) – Keckes, Ninaj, Ciobotariu – Oroian, Kallaku ( Varga ), Paun, Matei ( Aganovic ), Stefan ( Dumitrescu ) – Stefanescu, Safranko ( Rondon )
FCV Farul Constanta : Buzbuchi – Dussaut, Larie ( Sirbu ), Popescu, Kiki – Deaconu ( Vina ), Queiros ( Nedelcu ), Grameni, Ganea ( Boli ) – Munteanu, Budescu ( Rivaldinho )
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