Dan Petrescu has the magic wand. He humiliated Hagi and CFR Cluj goes directly to the Conference League

Dan Petrescu has the magic wand. He humiliated Hagi and CFR Cluj goes directly to the Conference League

CFR Cluj achieved a real (re)tour of strength, winning the last 5 games in the playoffs securing the 2nd place in the ranking and implicitly the direct qualification in the Conference League preliminaries. With Dan Petrescu on the technical bench, the Transylvanians passed on Saturday night like the Accelerated Farul lui Gică Hagi, 5-1, taking revenge for the fixed defeat with the same score in the round.

Dan Petrescu took over CFR Cluj after leaving the Koreans from Jeonbok. Facebook photo

In the last stage of the playoffs, CFR Cluj needed at least a draw against Farului to be sure that the runner-up of Romania emerges and that it qualifies without a barrier in the Conference League preliminaries, without depending on the result of the match at the same time between Universitatea Craiova and Sepsi .

And the equation of the game was solved in the first 40 minutes, Ciprian Deac '8 (penalty), Panagiotis Tachtsidis '16, Karlo Muhar '22 and Daniel Bîrligea '37 bringing the score to a humiliating 4-0. Cristi Ganea scored the point of honor (min. 65) for Gică Hagi's team, which misses the European cups, and Otele made up the difference at the end, scoring for 5-1.

Who goes to the European Cups

At the same time, Craiova University moved past Sepsi with emotions, 3-2, after the Covasnians led at halftime with 1-0. Olteni finished the championship in 3rd position, which leads to the barrier for participation in the Conference League, going to meet the winner between Oțelul Galați and U Cluj, the first in the playout with the right to play in Europe.

FCSB will participate in the Champions League after winning the title, and Corvinul, the Cup winner, will participate in the Europa League qualifiers. CFR Cluj will go directly to the Conference League preliminaries thanks to the second place in the Superliga. The fourth team, which will represent Romania in the European cups, will be determined after two play-off matches and will start in the 1st preliminary round of the Conference League.

Superliga playoff standings

1. FCSB 49p

2. CFR Cluj 46p

3. U Craiova 44p

4. The lighthouse 36p

5. Sepsis 34p

6 Fast 29p

*The last game of the season, Rapid – FCSB, is played on Sunday, from 21.00, without implications in the final ranking

Adrian Stoica

Adrian Stoica

Adrian is the founder and the visionary behind Cluj Napoca, a media platform committed to capturing and sharing the vibrant stories of Cluj-Napoca and Romania with an international audience. A graduate in international journalism from the University of Bucharest and holder of a Master’s in Cultural Studies from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Adrian has a robust educational background that equips him to understand and analyze the complexities of his native region's culture and history.