In a season where he started very poorly – there was talk of Bergodi's change after the first rounds – and ended the year just as badly, winless between stages 16 and 21, Rapid unexpectedly ended up in the cards to win the title!
Dan Şucu, Rapid boss
By “COME” for this surprising situation is the course of the 2024 team. Except “the accident” since Iași, 1-3 with Poli, the team went perfectly. With consecutive wins against FC U Craiova (4-3), Dinamo (2-1), Otelul (2-1), CFR Cluj (1-0), Hermannstadt (2-0) and UTA (4-1).
Even if the last two stages of the regular season will be hellish for Bergodi's team, with matches against play-off teams Rotaru's Craiova and the leader FCSB, the fans are already dreaming of the title. On Monday, in Craiova, it will be played in a sufficiently large stadium, “Ion Oblemenco” (capacity: 30,944 seats). On the other hand, the arena in Giulesti (capacity: 14,047 seats) is too small for a huge match with FCSB. Most likely, the match will be scheduled for Saturday, March 9. And, more importantly, it will move to the National Arena (capacity: 55,634 seats) precisely because the interest around the derby has exploded, given the situation in the standings.
“We want to change the stadium with FCSB, we want to play at the National Arena. There is a very high demand for tickets. Demand for tickets is four times the capacity of the stadium“, said Dan Șucu, Rapid's main financier, after the victory with UTA. Yesterday, in dialogue with “Fanatik”, the businessman resumed the idea of moving the match to the biggest stadium of the country.
“We clearly decided to do everything humanly possible to play the match at the National Arena. They are just bureaucratic obstacles. That is precisely why we are announcing to FCSB, out of respect for the opponent, as it should be natural, that they have all the turf. I'm sure it will be crazy. There's a huge demand for tickets right now that we haven't had in a very long time“, explained Şucu on the show “Fanatik Superliga”.
Money cancels out the home field advantage
There was talk about moving the Rapid – FCSB derby to the National Arena before the victory of the Giulești team against UTA.
In a first phase, everything fell apart because the FCSB opposed it. Specifically, the band from Berceni requested an entire lawn for its fans at the National Arena. Rapid agreed, on the condition that in the derby in the play-off, FCSB – Rapid, and the supporters from Giulești will receive an entire lawn in the same stadium. According to Digi Sport, the FCSB players refused the proposal, considering that the play-off game is more important than the one in the last stage of the regular season. And that Rapid would have an advantage if they had more supporters in the play-off match. Now, after Șucu's statements, almost certainly, a consensus will be found, so that both derbies will be played at the National Arena.
Moving the 30th round match to the country's biggest stadium has advantages and disadvantages for Rapid. According to gsp.ro, the financial gain will obviously be greater. From the sale of tickets, Rapid would collect over 400,000 euros at the National Arena, while at Giulești Stadium the revenues generated by the derby would be under 100,000 euros.
The Rapid disadvantage, on the other hand, is the loss of the chance to play at home. Because the National Arena is, in fact, “HouseFCSB, Becali's team playing here all the games in which it is the host of the meeting. Exceptions were made in situations where the National Arena was unavailable for concerts and non-football events.
Assist-record potential
Quick Match – FCSB in the final leg of the regular season has the potential to set a new assist record this Super League season. Especially when we see that the round match, from the 15th stage, was the most watched of the current season, gathering over 40,000 people at the National Arena. Now, when we are talking about a match between two teams on the podium, who are due to duel for the title in the play-offs, almost certainly the attendance record, set in November, will be broken.
Superliga 2023-2024, 29th stage (penultimate)
Thursday (the last three matches of the 28th stage)
Botoșani – Sepsi 1-2
Petrolul – University of Craiova 2-3
Volunteers – FCSB 1-2
Friday
Poli Iași – Dinamo 20.00
Saturday
UTA – FC U Craiova 14.00
Hermannstadt – Oțelul Galati 17.00
Farul – CFR Cluj 20.00
Sunday
Cluj University – Botoșani 2.30 p.m
FCSB – Petrol 20.30
Months
Sepsis – Volunteers 17.00
University of Craiova – Rapid 20.00
Ranking
1. FCSB 28 18 7 3 52-24 61
2. Fast 28 14 9 5 50-31 51
3. CFR Cluj 28 14 7 7 52-28 49
4. University of Craiova 28 12 9 7 44-36 45
5. Constanta Lighthouse 28 11 8 9 36-37 41
6. Cluj University 28 9 11 8 34-38 38
7. Sepsis 28 10 7 11 37-33 37
8. Hermannstadt 28 8 13 7 32-29 37
9. UTA 28 9 10 9 33-40 37
10. Oil 28 7 14 7 28-29 35
11. Galati Steel 28 6 15 7 29-31 33
12. FC U Craiova 1948 28 9 4 15 40-45 31
13. Poli Iasi 28 7 10 11 32-43 31
14. Volunteers 28 6 9 13 31-45 27
15. Dynamo 28 7 4 17 21-41 25
16. Botoșani 28 3 11 14 30-51 20
*Places 1-6 enter the play-off (round-trip, 10 stages in total).
*Places 7-16 will continue in the play-out (single leg, 9 stages in total).
*The 1st place in the play-off participates in the Champions League, and the 2nd and 3rd place in the play-off, in the Europa Conference League.
*The 3rd place in the play-off will play a play-off with the winner of the play-off between the 1st and 2nd places in the play-out for a place in the Europa Conference League.
*The 9th and 10th places in the play-out are directly relegated. The relegable places 7/8 in the play-out play a play-off with the places 3/4 in League 2.
