August 6, 2026
The draw from the UEFA Conference League Play-Off resulted in Brighton and Hove Albion being drawn against the winners of the Third Qualifying Round tie between CFR Cluj and Tromso. Fatbear decided it would be an opportunity to spy on Albion’s potentials opponents !
By finishing third in the Romania SuperLiga, CFR Cluj were exempt to the Second Qualifying Round of the Conference League where they were drawn against Armenian side Alashkert. A 1-1 draw was played out in the first leg in Yerevan, and Cluj cruised to a 3-0 home victory in the return, in front of a crowd of 5,465.
Tromso’s third place in the 2025 Eliteserien qualified them for the Second Qualifying Round of the Europa League, where they were perhaps surprisingly eliminated by Czech side Hradec Kralove. The Czechs grabbed a 1-0 away win in front of 5,082 spectators in Tromso, and although the Norwegian side scored first in the second leg with Larsen’s acrobatic close range finish after Innvaer’s strong run to level the tie, Hradec responded with three headed goals to progress 4-1 on aggregate. Tromso therefore dropped down to the Conference League.
Norway were 14th in the UEFA coefficients used to determine the number of sides each country had this year in each UEFA club competitions, whereas Romania were 21st.
Football In Romania
These diaries covered Universitatea Craiova’s first leg in their First Round Champions League tie against Levski Sofia last month, which they lost 0-1 in Bulgaria. This was these diaries 6th match report on games involving Romanian sides, in addition to 6 match-day reviews/round-ups on the Romania SuperLiga. However, CFR Cluj had not been featured in any match reports, although they had mentions in the 5 weekly round-ups.
The report on the Universitatea Craiova vs Levski game gave details on the format of the Romanian SuperLiga.
https://fatbearssportingdiaries.blogspot.com/2026/07/levski-sofia-1-0-universitatea-craiova.html
The 2026/27 season in Romania had already started, and after their 3rd place finish last season, CFR Cluj had made a disappointing start, with one win and two losses in the three games played so far. Both defeats had come away from home, going down 1-2 at Otelul Galati, and 1-3 at Rapid Bucharest, although a 5-0 home win had been registered over FC Voluntari, who had been reduced to 10 men after just 12 minutes.
CFR Cluj
The club were founded in 1907 in the city of Cluj-Napoca, the second largest city in Romania, located in the north-west of the country in the province of Transylvania. Cluj-Napoca is located around 460km north-west of the capital, and similar distances to Belgrade to the south-west and Budapest to the north-west.
When the club was founded, Cluj-Napoca was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and only became part of Romania in 1920, and around 50,000 people, 14% of the population, today are ethnic Hungarian.
After becoming part of Romania, the club changed its name from Kolozsvári Vasutas Sport Club, which from Hungarian translates as Cluj Railway Sport Club, to Căile Ferate Române Cluj, or Romanian Railways. Although the state railway carrier was dissolved in 1998 into four autonomous privatised companies, the football club retained the CFR initials in its name.
CFR have won the Romanian title on 8 occasions, with the first being in 2007/08, and there were 5 consecutive successes between 2017/18 and 2021/22, which was the last title won. CFR were runners-up in 2023/24 and 2024/25, and the Romanian Cup has been won 5 times, the last time in 2024/25.
Home is the Dr. Constantin Rădulescu Stadium, named after a former player, coach and club doctor, but is commonly referred to as the CFR Cluj Stadium. It has a capacity of 17,408 and a grass pitch. CFR Cluj’s average home attendance last season was only 3,159, the third lowest in the SuperLiga, and down from 4,499 from the previous season.
There are two top flight sides in Cluj-Napoca, so CFR Cluj are not to be confused with Universitatea Cluj, with whom there is a long-standing rivalry !
CFR Cluj’s colours have traditionally been white and burgundy, leading to one of their nicknames being The White and Burgundies, with The Railwaymen being another popular nickname.
CFR Cluj have a decent record in Europe, with their best performance being in 2012/13 when they finished third in their Champions’ League Group with 10 points, after a win against Manchester United at Old Trafford, two wins over Braga, and a draw in Istanbul with Galatasaray. This remains the best performance by a Romanian team in the Champions League, although of course Steaua Bucharest won the European Cup in 1986 beating Barcelona on penalties in the final in Seville.
CFR have also won matches against Roma, Lazio, Celtic ( twice ) and Basel ( three times ), whilst draws were played against Chelsea, Roma, and Lazio.
In the 2025/26 UEFA Europe League, CFR eliminated Hungarian side Paks 3-0 on aggregate, then Lugano 1-0, before being eliminated 1-4 on aggregate by Braga. Dropping down the UEFA Conference League, Cluj lost 2-7 on aggregate to Swedish side Hacken.
CFR Cluj Squad
The CFR Cluj squad didn’t contain any players who had represented the national side within the past 12 months. Indeed, the only current internationals were Mauritanian defender Aly Abeid ( 76 caps ) and Kosovan winger Meriton Korenica ( 6 caps ), who was the joint highest valued player according to Transfermrkt at €3M.
Also rated at €3M was right-winger Andrei Cordea ( 5 caps ), who had returned to Romania after a short spell in Saudi Arabia.
Foreign players in the squad included ex-Jablonec and Rio Ave Croatian defender Renato Pantalon, who hopefully wouldn’t be caught with his pants down, veteran German right-back Cristopher Braun had played for Botosani and Rapid Bucharest after moving from OFI Crete, Serbian striker Stefan Drazic had played in Belgium, China, Hungary and Cyprus before joining Cluj, Portuguese left-back Simao Rocha was ex-Pacos de Ferreira, Croatian midfielder Karlo Muhar had played for Lech Poznan, Kayserispor, CSKA Sofia and in Saudi Arabia, whilst veteran Damjan Djorkovic had played for Bologna, Cesena, Livorno, Ajaccio, Furth and sides in Turkey, Saudi Arabia in addition to FCSB and Rapid Bucharest, and doesn’t appear to be any relation to Novak !
Midfielder Alin Fica had been with CFR since 2020 whilst keeper Octovian Valceanu had played for several sides in Romania before joining CFR last season. Midfielder Adrian Paun ( 1 cap ) had played in Isreal, forward Andres Sfait had briefly been with Saleritarnia, whilst Portugal born midfielder Mario Camora had 10 caps for Romania.
The coach was Portuguese Antonio Folha ( 26 caps ), who had played for Porto, Standard Liege and AEK Athens as a player.
Football In Norway
These diaries have covered 5 matches from Norway’s Eliteserien, with the most recent being the Valerenga vs Molde game in June last year.
There are 16 sides in the Norway Eliteserien, who play each other twice for a 30-game season. The Champions qualify for the UEFA Champions League play-off round, with the runners-up entering the Third Qualifying Round of the Champions League. The Cup Winners go through to the Europa League play-off round whilst the third placed side enter the Europa League Second Qualifying Round. The team finishing in fourth place enter the Europa Conference League Second Qualifying Round. The bottom two sides are relegated to the Norway First League, known as the OBOS-ligaen, whilst the side finishing 14th face a play-off against the winner of the First League promotion play-offs.
Norway is one of Europe’s 12 summer leagues and the 2026 season is half way through, with Bodo/Glimt leading the 2025 champions Viking Stavanger by one point but from one game more played. Tromso were in third place a further three points behind but 9 points clear of Lillestrom in 4th place.
Tromso IL
Tromso is located inside the Arctic Circle on the island of Tromsoya and the municipality has a population of around 80,000, the 12th largest in Norway. The journey by road is just under 1,750 km and would take nearly 22 hours, with the vast majority of the trip being through Sweden. The flight takes 1 hour 50 minutes, which Fatbear has taken as flights to Svalbard needed to clear customs in Tromso before flying on to Longyearbyen. Therefore, Fatbear has been to Tromso Airport and seen the city from the air !
Tromso Idrettslag were founded in 1920 but clubs from northern Norway were only allowed to participate in the Norwegian Cub in 1963, and only in 1972 play in the top division. Tromso were promoted to play in the 1986 first division and played there until relegation in 2001. However, the stay in the second level was just for one season, as were the 2014 and 2020 seasons when they also played in the second tier.
Tromso have finished as runners-up on two occasions, in 1990 and 2011, but they won the Norwegian Cup in 1986 and 1996, which Wikipedia claims makes Tromso the most northerly team on the planet to win a national trophy !
Home is the 6,691 capacity Romssa Area, which has an artificial pitch, and the team’s nickname is Guten, which translates as The Boys. Tromso colours have traditionally been red and white shirts with white shorts and socks.
Tromso’s average home attendance this season was currently 5,164, the 10th highest in the Eliteserien, and up from the 4,958 on 2025. In their last outing, Tromso won 6-2 at Aalesund.
Tromso have enjoyed some success in Europe, first coming to wider attention in the 1997/98 Cup-Winners Cup when they beat a Chelsea side including Vialli, Zola, Wise, Leboeuf, De Goey, Clarke, Petrescu and Hughes and coached by Ruud Gullit. However, the 3-2 win was played in a blizzard, and the Chelsea All-Stars avoided further embarrassment by winning the return 7-1 !
Tromso eliminated Galatasaray from the 2005/06 UEFA Cup, and beat Red Star Belgrade 3-1 in the Group Phase. A 1-1 home draw was played against Athletic Bilbao in the 2009/10 Europa League play-off round but they were eliminated 3-4 on aggregate.
The 2013/14 Europa League play-off round saw Tromso beat Besiktas 2-1 at home but lost the return 0-2 to lose the tie 2-3 on aggregate. However, Besiktas were kicked out of the competition due to the 2011 match-fixing scandals in Turkey, and Tromso were re-instated. Tromso though lost 5 of their 6 group matches, including home and away defeats to Tottenham Hotspur ( 0-2 & 0-3 ), with the only point coming from a 1-1 home draw with Sheriff Tiraspol.
In the 2024/25 Conference League, Tromso recorded home and away 1-0 victories over Finnish side KuPS but disappointingly exited the competition to Kilmarnock. Although the first leg was a 2-2 draw in Scotland, a 0-1 home reverse in the return saw the Scottish side progress.
Tromso Squad
The Tromso squad had two current internationals, Mauritanian keeper Abderrahame Sarr ( 8 caps ) and Cape Verde forward Ieltsin Cameos ( 1 cap ). Cameos was the top scorer last season with 13 goals.
Veteran midfielder and captain Ruben Janssen was an ex-international ( 39 caps ), and had played in Germany for Kaiserslautern and for Dutch side Groningen.
The highest valued player at €10M according to Transfermrkt was Under 21 international midfielder Jens Hjerto-Dahl, who was this season’s joint top scorer so far with 7 goals, alongside midfielder Heine Asen Larsen. Swedish Under 21 full-back-back Alexander Warneryd had found the net 5 times this season.
Other foreign players in the Tromso squad included Danish keeper Jakob Haugaard, who had played for Stoke City, Wigan Athletic and AIK Stockholm, ex-Varnamo Swedish midfielder David Edvardsson and ex-Orgryte Swedish midfielder Isak Dahlqvist.
Forward Troy Nyhammer and midfielder Sander Innvaer had both previously played for Haugesund and appeared in these diaries in the relegation/play-off game in December 2024 against Moss FK.
The coach was Jorgen Vik, a former Norway Futsal international.
Matchday Information
The distance between Tromso and Cluj-Napoca is around 3,400 kilometres by road and ferry. There are no direct flights between the two cities, so unless flying on a chartered aircraft, the journey could take anything from 7 to 12 hours depending on the stopovers. It looked like around 20 Tromso supporters had travelled.
The weather at the 19.30 local time kick-off ( 17.30 UK ) was sunny and 33 degrees.
Tickets for the match were between 40-45 Lei ( £6.50 - £7.35 ), with VIP tickets 140 Lei ( £23 ) and 310 Lei ( £50 ) for the Business Lounge.
Bet365, who live streamed the match, made Tromso 17/10 favourites, with Cluj at 27/20 and the draw 11/5.
CFR Cluj were playing in all burgundy but with a broad white band down the front of their shirts, whilst Tromso were wearing a change kit of all dark blue
Tromso made four changes to the side that started the defeat to Hradec Kralove with Mathias Tonnessen, Lars Larsen, Dahlqvist and Nyhammer coming into the starting XI. Cameos and Innvaer dropped to the bench whilst Hjerto-Dahl was rumoured to be about to sign for Premiership Hull City for €11.5M and Tobias Guddal had been sold to Sparta Prague for €4.5M
Cluj made three changes to the team that took to the field against Alashkert with ex-Grasshoppers and Aston Villa Portuguese keeper Andre Moreira replacing Valceanu, Camora replaced Rocha, and Bruno Costa was in for Djokovic.
The referee was Patrik Kolaric from Croatia
Match Report
Nearly three minutes had been played before the Bet365 live stream became available, and almost immediately after there was a goal to report !
Warneryd went on a mazy run into the Cluj area. His cross took a slight deflection, enough for Lars Larsen to only be able to head upwards, but when the ball was falling, Heine Larsen hooked the ball home from the 6-yard line ahead of Abeid and Camora. Frankly, the two defenders could have done a lot better and were not brave enough. 0-1 in the 5th minute.
Tromso’s lead could have been doubled a minute later as Jenssen ran through the middle of the Cluj half and offloaded to Heine Larsen on his left, but the left-footed shot was sliced wide from 12 yards.
The first Cluj were seen as an attacking threat came in the 9th minute when a long ball found Cordea, but Tonnessen defended well and won the ball. Fica then played a ball through the left-hand channel and Korenica kept the ball in play and laid the ball back to Camora, but the cross was hit too long and sailed harmlessly beyond the far post.
Muhar then ran onto a flick and into the Tromso area, but his low shot across goal went narrowly wide.
However, Tromso soon scored again. A short pass from Janssen put Heine Larsen in oceans of space as a huge gap in the heart of the Cluj defence opened, and Larsen’s left footed side-footed shot from just inside the D nestled into the keeper’s bottom right-hand corner. It was now 0-2 with 19 minutes played.
Cluj responded with an in-swinging left-footed free-kick from Cordea which Heine Larsen, back helping out in defence, headed off for a corner.
The Cluj defence was struggling to cope with the visitors’ slick attacking moves and a third goal was soon added. Edvardsson played a diagonal ball towards the far post which Dahlqvist controlled, and with Camora unable to close him down, drilled across goal into far corner from just outside the angle of the yard box . There was a VAR check to see if Jenssen had been offside in the build-up, but Abeid had played the Tromso midfielder onside so the goal stood. 0-3 after 28 minutes.
Jenssen tried his luck from distance but Moreira dived to hold the 25-yarder. For Cluj, Muhar ran down left-hand channel but his low cross was cut out.
A comedy moment arrived in the 32nd minute when Isak Vadebu pushed Korenica in the chest and the Kosovan went down holding his head. The battle between these two players continued two minutes later as Korenica was tackled by Vadebu when about to shoot from 8 yards out. The ball trickled through to keeper Haugaard, and Korenica stayed on the ground for a couple of minutes with an apparent injury. However, a miraculous recovery occurred and he was good to continue, and was soon fouling Vadebu when the young Tromso defender made a headed clearance.
Four minutes before half-time Nyhammer was allowed to run down the right wing and then across the 18- yard line, and his left footed effort hit both posts before going into the net. It looked like a hammer blow to Cluj, but a VAR check showed Heine Larsen to be in an offside position, and although not in the direct eyeline of keeper, his jump to get out of the way of the ball was enough for the goal to be chalked off.
Haugaard’s leisurely evening was disturbed when he needed to leap and catch a long ball just inside his area ahead of Drazic
In first-half added time, Tromso centre-back Skjaervik was unexpectedly marauding in space on the right wing but his floated cross was headed away by Pantalon.
The half-time statistics showed Cluj had 57% of the possession but in truth they had been outplayed, and had managed just one shot, which was off target. Tromso had impressed with their short, quick passing, and a desire to swiftly break.
Cluj changed their keeper for the start of the second half although Moreira had not been at fault for any of the three goals, nor the disallowed one. Muhar was also hooked, with Uruguayan Francisco Barrios taking his place
Cluj were unable to get into the second half, with the only action in the opening 10 minutes being Nyhammer’s shot from the edge of the area which Valceanu comfortably saved.
Nyhammer was the recipient of the first yellow card of the game, taking a heavy first touch after being put clear by Heine Larsen and then slid into Valceanu as the Cluj keeper had bravely come off his line to dive on the ball. Bruno Costa soon levelled the yellow card score though, after a clumsy challenge on Edvardsson when trying to win a header on edge of the Tromso area
Matter got worse for Cluj. Lars Larsen’s cute chip gave Heine Larsen a one-on-one with the keeper but Valceanu was able to block the first attempt, and the follow-up from the rebound was blocked by Braun. Nyhammer then had an effort blocked by Abeid but the loose ball was lashed home in Carlos Alberto style by Dahlqvist to make it 0-4 with 61 minutes on the clock.
Cluj now couldn’t get near the ball as Tromso confidently pass it around, The Railwaymen had appeared to have run out of steam !
Substitute Cameos moved clear down the left and his low ball found Nyhammer unmarked 10 yards out, but the first-time shot hit Valceanu’s legs.
A drinks break was taken after 70 minutes, but the refreshments didn’t seem to have any benefit to Cluj as Cameos slipped a pass through for Dahlqvist to put the ball past the advancing keeper for his hat-trick. There was a lengthy VAR check for offside but goal stood. 0-5 after 73 minutes.
With the game and almost certainly the tie settled, Tromso took the foot off the gas a little and Cluj ended the match on the front foot. Substitute Lorenzo Biliboc sent a long range left-footed effort over the bar, then poor defending by Tromso allowed the ball to fall to Fica but the shot was deflected wide for a corner.
Substitute Paun had a shot deflected wide for corner, which after being cleared, Sfait’s 30 yarder bounced through to Haugaard for an easy save. Drazic then shot wide after a flick from Fica.
Three added minutes were played but Tromso were not unduly troubled. There was still time for Camora to be shown a yellow card for diving in on Mads Mikklesen.
The second leg now looks to be a formality barring a record-breaking comeback from Cluj, so Brighton fans should be able to sample the Paris Of The North and try to see the Northern Lights !
CFR Cluj : Moreira ( Valceanu ) – Braun, Abeid, Pantalon, Camora – Bruno Costa ( Paun ), Muhar ( Barrios ), Fica – Cordea ( Sfait ), Drazic, Korenica ( Biliboc )
Tromso IL : Haugaard – Vadebu, Tonnessen, Skjaervik, Warneryd ( Innvaer ) – Dahlqvist ( Mikklesen ), Edvardsson ( Grundt ), Jenssen, L. Larsen – Nyhammer ( Braut ), H. Larsen ( Cameos )
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