Steaua Bucureşti loses to Fiorentina in Champions League

Dorinel Munteanu’s Steaua Bucureşti lost to Fiorentina 1-0 at Stadionul Steaua. With the Roş-Albaştrii chances to advance to the UEFA Cup hinging on a victory, they came out with intent but could not break-through. Tricolorii capped Bănel Nicoliţă came close with a free kick early but it wasn’t to be and six minutes after the hour Juan Manuel Vargas’s corner was headed-in by Alberto Gilardino to give the Serie A club the 1-0 lead. The task went uphill six minutes last Polish international Paweł Golański was excused with his second yellow and the match concluded as a 1-0 defeat of Steaua Bucureşti

Steaua Bucureşti - Fiorentina match review

After falling to a difficult 1-0 loss to Bayern München in their opening match of Champions League competition, Steaua Bucureşti held Fiorentina to a scoreless draw. The match was marked with tight midfield play in which neither club were able to effectively threaten to score on a regular basis. Roş-Albaştrii tactical mission of devouring attacks was accomplished but they were unable to develop an effective counter throughout the match. With the clear goal of coming out with their first point of the tournament, Steaua padlocked the match and ensuring that Adrian Mutu and Alberto Gilardino never had a opportunity to give the Viola the victory. Remarkably with only twelve minutes left in the match António Semedo was gifted a close range effort but Fiorentina 'keeper Sebastien Frey made a dramatic save and the match concluded as a nil draw.











Steaua Bucureşti
Róbinson Zapata,Sorin Ghionea,Mirel Rădoi,Petre Marin,George Ogăraru,Dorin Goian,Florin Lovin,Bănel Nicoliţă,António Semedo (Pantelis Kapetanos 90'),Dayro Moreno (Tiago Gomes 87'),Bogdan Stancu (János Székely 77')

Fiorentina
Sebastien Frey,Dario Dainelli,Juan Vargas,Alessandro Gamberini,Mario Santana,Sergio Almiron (Zdravko Kuzmanovic 74'),Riccardo Montolivo (Giampaolo Pazzini 81'),Felipe Melo,Martin Jorgensen (Luciano Zauri 45'),Alberto Gilardino,Adrian Mutu

Fiorentina easily defeats Genoa 1-0

Fiorentina easily handled Genoa in route to a 1-0 victory that marked a large series of roster changes by the Rossoblu's manager Gian Piero Gasperini. After a dreadful 3-0 loss to Lazio the Viola came out and played fundamentally sound Football and won the match with a Alberto Gilardino strike off a corner at the sixty-first minute mark.

Genoa's attack was quite subdued and lacked a notable flourish particularly before the break as Diego Milito called upon six minutes into the half. While the Grifone created a few opportunities to level, it was only a few and barely resembled the club that had defeated Roma only a few days before. Clearly the experimentation with a lineup that omitted Francesco Modesto,Ivan Jurić Andrea Gasbarroni, Giuseppe Sculli and Diego Milito lacked the bite of prior matches and led to the result.

Genoa returns to action on Thursday against Ravenna in the Coppa Italia while Fiorentina welcomes Steaua Bucureşti in Champions League action on Tuesday.

Genoa: Rubinho; Sokratis Papastathopoulos, Matteo Ferrari, Domenico Criscito; Salvatore Bocchetti, Omar Milanetto (Ivan Jurić 41'), Anthony Vanden Borre (Francesco Modesto 60'), Giandomenico Mesto (Diego Milito 51'); Raffaele Palladino, Rubén Olivera, Marco Rossi

Fiorentina: Frey; Jorgensen, Kroldrup, Dainelli, Gobbi; Donadel, Melo, Montolivo; Semioli (65’ Santana), Gilardino (65’ Pazzini), Mutu (83’ Osvaldo)

Genoa - Fiorentina match preview

With the success of the Roma match in the past, the Rossoblu face the Viola in Firenze on Saturday. In repeat of the prior match Gian Piero Gasperini must certainly realize he is gifted with very fortunate scheduling. Like Roma heading into complex period, Fiorentina's manager Cesare Prandelli is not only dealing with a poor start to the Serie A season, a dreadful 3-0 Lazio on Wednesday but a critical match on Tuesday against Steaua Bucureşti in the Champions League. After a controversial draw to Lyon, the Viola will be anxious for an important away win in Champions League action and it will surely be a part of tactical considerations.

The start of the season has been an up and down affair for Fiorentina, starting with a solid draw with Juventus and a close loss to Napoli before getting their first victory of the year Bologna. However this Wednesday the wheels fell off the cart with the aforementioned loss to Lazio. What precisely has happened is somewhat of a mystery as they uncharacteristically broke down defensively and allowed three goals in a eight minute period. Truthfully the score could have been much worse and it left you perplexed how Alberto Gilardino and Adrian Mutu were barely visible in the match.

With the short week, I expect Genoa to possibly employing Boško Janković or Rubén Olivera within the following general lineup:

Rubinho,
Giuseppe Biava, Matteo Ferrari,Domenico Criscito
Marco Rossi,Omar Milanetto,Anthony Vanden Borre, Francesco Modesto
Andrea Gasbarroni/Raffaele Palladino, Diego Milito, Giuseppe Sculli

The clear work ahead for this match lays in the back three. While Diego Milito is having a remarkable start to campaign, the back-line of Giuseppe Biava, Domenico Criscito and Matteo Ferrari are creating a defensive net that controls the opposition attack.

Steaua Bucureşti Champions League draw results

Marius Lăcătuş leads Steaua Bucureşti into the Champions League. In todays draw they were allocated to Group F which includes Fiorentina of Italy's Serie A, Bayern München of Germany's Bundesliga and Ligue One champion Olympique Lyonnais.

Matchday One - Sep 17
Steaua Bucuresti - Bayern München

Matchday Three - Oct 21
Steaua Bucuresti - Olympique Lyonnais

Matchday Five - Nov 25
Bayern München - Steaua Bucuresti

Matchday Two - Sep 30
Fiorentina - Steaua Bucuresti

Matchday Four - Nov 5
Olympique Lyonnais - Steaua Bucuresti

Matchday Six - Dec 10
Steaua Bucuresti - Fiorentina