Liga 1 week 25

Week 25 of Romania Liga 1 concluded with a stunning series of upsets with both Dinamo Bucureşti and Timişoara losing.

The weekend started with Steaua Bucureşti 1-0 defeat of Gaz Metan Mediaş as Pantelis Kapetanos scored the matches lone goal a minute before the hour as he flicked in Bănel Nicoliţă's corner. Mediaş played the final twenty minutes a man-down as Ionuţ Buzean was shown his second yellow-card.

Gloria Buzău earned its second win of the year defeated Argeş Piteşti 3-1. Ioan Mera opened the scoring for Buzău only two minutes into the match. However Cosmin Năstăsie brought the match even nineteen minutes in nodding-in Cristian Tănaseand's corner and set the stage for a whirlwind finish. With eight minutes remaining Marian Chiţu's superb run down the left flank and low cross to Gueye Mansour gave Buzău the 2-1 lead. As regulation time ran down Chiţu half-volleyed the ball in from just outside the area to make it 3-1.

The showdown between Universitatea Craiova and Unirea Urziceni ended in scoreless draw. Craiova had the best chance early as Ştefan Bărboianu struck the crossbar from thirty metres a quarter of a hour into the match

On Saturday, upsets were in the making in shocking day.

Defending champion CFR Cluj defeated Farul Constanţa 1-0 with the lone goal coming from Lacina Traore heading-in Emmanuel Culio's cross from left with twenty-three minutes left.

CS Otopeni was disappointed at home, losing 1-0 to Pandurii Târgu Jiu with Novak Martinović headed-in a free-kick from close-range with seventeen minutes left on the clock. Otopeni's Ionuţ Rada was shown a straight red-card at the thirty-second minute forcing his side to play a man-down for the last hour.

Oţelul Galaţi fell 3-0 to Gloria Bistriţa. The Vampirii Albaştri took the lead as Diogo Ramos opened the scoring seventeen minutes after the opening whistle. Two minutes into the new half Cristian Coroian doubled the margin with Dorel Zaharia added the third goal with twelve minutes left in regulation.

Rapid Bucureşti defeated Braşov 3-1. Juliano Spadacio opened the scoring for Rapid twenty minutes into the match with a perfect free-kick from twenty metres to the top left corner. Eight minutes after the re-start Nicolae Grigore made it 2-0 for Rapid in one the nicest goals of the week as he accepted a long pass from João Paulo Andrade, controlled it with one touch and then volleyed into the netting. Romanian U21 Sabrin Sburlea brought Braşov with one with four minutes left on the clock as he headed-in Rui Duarte long cross into the box. However Nicolae Grigore sealed the match for Rapid with the second of his night after a well-played one-two with Radomir Đalović.

Timişoara fell victim to relegation threatened Vaslui 4-3 after taking a early two goal lead. Gheorghe Bucur gave Gabi Balint's Timişoara a two goal cushion as he headed-in Alexandru Curtean's well placed cross from the six-yard box at the sixth minute and then from the spot two minutes later. In rapid-fire succession Vasuli brought the match level with Wesley hitting the target two minutes before the half hour, only to be followed up by Srdjan Luchin's own goal. Armenian international Artavazd Karamyan restored Timişoara's lead seven minutes past the hour with a unstoppable left-footed drive to the top of the box.




Mike Temwanjera evened the match with twenty-one minutes left as he sent the rebound of Lucian Burdujan's shot. With four minutes left Nemanja Milisavljević headed-in a long cross from three metres for the shocking win.

However nothing prepared Liga 1 fans for the biggest surprise, that being Politehnica Iaşi 1-0 defeat of Dinamo Bucureşti 1-0 with Lucian Munteanu finding the winner as he rose high the head-in a corner with three minutes left in the match.

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