The last match of the 8th stage of the League 2 play-off, the penultimate of the tournament, takes place today, Saturday, May 4, from 12:00, in Slobozia, where the leader Unirea meets Corvinul Hunedoara. Depending on the result, if the home team gets at least one point, then it will mathematically become the champion of this edition of the championship.
- The 8th round of the play-off started on Thursday, when CS Mioveni achieved its first victory in the tournament, 3-1 at home against FK Miercurea Ciuc. On Friday, Gloria Buzău needed a point in the Cisnădie match with CSC Șelimbăr, to mathematically occupy the second place directly promoted, but lost with a score of 1-2. The Sibians managed to win, like CS Mioveni, the first match in the play-off.
LIVE COMMENTARY:
UNIREA SLOBOZIA – CORVINUL HUNEDOARA 1-0
Christ Afalna 39′
Union of Slobozia: D. Rusu – Dorobanțu (R. Iancu 90+1′), I. Dinu (capt.), Pospielov, Andreș – Șt. Pacionel, Coadă (Gab. Lazăr 70′) – Cojocari (Ekollo 70′), Purece (Mih. Lemnaru 85′), Vlăsceanu (Aioanei 85′) – Afalna
Unused reserves: St. Georgescu – D. Bujor, Gîrbăcea, Mih. Sandru
Coach: Adrian Mihalcea
Corvinus: Left – Fl. Iacob (Nic. Pîrvulescu 46′), Lică (D. Pop 64′), Ant. Manolache, Velisar – Hrezdac (M. Chindriș 46′), Bradu – Lupu, Al. Neacșa (capt.)(Seb. Ion 81′), T. Mitran (Câmpan 64′) – M. Coman
Unused reserves: Blaga – Ad. Nicolae, Hergheligiu, Sermon
Coach: Florin Maxim
Stadium: May 1 (Slobozia – Ialomița). Central referee: Iuliana Elena Demetrescu (Râmnicu Vâlcea). Assistant referees: Ionuț Traian Neacșu (Bucharest) and Mihaela Țepusă (Buzău). Reserve referee: Ana Maria Terteleac (Berceni – Ilfov). Referee observer: Silviu Crângaşu (Ploiesti). Game delegate: Dorinel Dincă (Călăraşi).
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♦Min 90+1 ⇐⇒ Raul Iancu debuts at Unirea and in League 2. Enters his place Andrei Dorobantu
♦Min 90 + The match is extended by five minutes
♦Min 89 At this celebratory match for Unirea, with the team already promoted and now almost certain of the 1st place, the Ialomi spectators behave as if they were on the field. Vociferate and address harsh words to referee Iuliana Demetrescu, for free!
♦Min 85 ⇐⇒ Double change at Unirea. out Florin Purece and Laurentiu Vlasceanu and enter Mihaita Lemnaru and Mario Aioanei. The Union president’s son is getting some minutes again this season, just like last game
♦Min 85 Crossing from the right, from a free kick, Câmpan stands out in the small box and sends a header over the goal from 6 meters
♦Min 82 Vlăsceanu sends to the back for Ekollo, who takes over and shoots with the right from about 22 meters central, weak, on foot, the ball touches the turf twice and is easily caught by Lefter
♦Min 81 ⇐⇒ At Corvinul, it comes out Alexandru Neacsa and enter, hopping on one leg, Sebastian Ion
♦Min 78 ||| Alexandru Neacsa he also receives the yellow card, for a foul committed in midfield
♦Min 72 Afalna advances in the center, on a counterattack, passes to the left for Vlăsceanu to enter the box, and he shoots from 13 meters past the goal, at the first crossbar
♦Min 70 ⇐⇒ Double change at CSC Şelimbăr. out Ionut Coadaslightly injured, and Serafim Cojocari and enter Gabriel Lazar and Serge Ekollo
♦Min 64 ⇐⇒ Two more changes at Corvinul. out Timotei Mitran and Viorel Lica and enter Lucas Campan and Doreen Pop
♦Min 56 Vlăsceanu enters at speed on the left, enters the corner, is tackled, given a shot at the first bar, and Lefter rejects in the corner. The fixed phase produces no emotion in the Hunedoren square
♦Min 50 Big scoring opportunity for Unirea, following a cross from the left of the box. Cojocari, unmarked in the small box, in a central position, takes the header and sends wide to the right
♦Min 48 Corvinul starts in attack this half. Neacșa crosses from a new corner from the right, on the second post, Manolache follows and deflects with his head from 5 meters to the first post, where Rusu easily catches
♦Min 46 The game resumed
♦Min 46 ⇐⇒ Double change at halftime at Corvinul. out Flavius Jacob and Denis Hrezdac and enter Nicolae Pîrvulescu and Marius Chindris
♦Cameroonian striker Christ Afalna (25 years old) scored his 7th goal this season for Unirea Slobozia, in 25 matches in which he played, in 21 starts as a starter. He is the team’s top scorer, followed by Laurentiu Vlăsceanu and Florin Purece, with five and four goals, respectively.
♦Min 45+3 Halftime at Slobozia, where Unirea leads 1-0 in front of Corvinu, after Christ Afalna’s lucky goal. With this result, the team from Ialomi secures the 1st place in the play-off and the League 2 champion trophy
♦Min 45+2 ||| Hrezdac cannot catch Vlăsceanu and pushes the Unirii midfielder from behind. Denis Hrezdac receives the yellow card
♦Min 39 ||| After the goal, referee Iulian Demetrescu goes to the sidelines and has a discussion with Florin Maxim, to whom he shows the yellow card for protests. The referee seems to have made a mistake in the decision to show a corner, but he does not accept to be told this, as he did, for example, in the phase of the 19th minute, when he gave a reverse foul, although Purece took a sole ugly on the leg from Lica
♦Min 39 1-0 Purece crosses from a corner from the left, contested by the Hunedoers, the ball is headed by Pospielov, unmarked, from 7 meters into the left post, the ball ricochets back into play, directly into his knee Christ Afalna, who was alone in 3 meters, and from him the ball goes into the net, to the left. Near the left post, Velisar remained motionless, as did goalkeeper Lefter, on the line
♦Min 32 Coman advances in the center, passes short to the left for Bradu, who shoots with the left from 18-19 meters slightly to the side. The ball goes just wide of the left link
♦Min 30 Dorobanțu advances to the left until about 25 meters from the goal and shoots with a volley. Lefter catches loosely
♦Min 29 Centering in the Corvinu box, Pospielov completes the goal
♦Min 19 Purece feels after Lică puts a sole on his foot. The referee gives a foul in the attack! The public boos Iuliana Demetrescu’s decision
♦Min 17 Purece crosses from a free kick from the left, the ball passes in front of the small box and is recovered to the right, and from there another cross is attempted in front of the goal, and Lefter catches this time at the first post
♦Min 10 Crossing from the corner from the left, Lică, demarcated at the first bar, restarts with his head from 6 meters, but sends it over the goal. Lică is the starter in this game, although in the last match, at home with CSC Şelimbăr, he was replaced in the 82nd minute, after an injury that caused him to complain so much that he gave the impression that he suffered something bad and will not play in this game season, especially the Cup final!
♦The Slobozia match between Unirea and Corvinul is commented for ProSport by Ilie Dobre, on the site’s Facebook page.
♦Min 2 Ionuț Coadă is feeling it after receiving a ball shot by teammate Cojocari in his jaw. He needs medical attention
♦Min 1 The game from Slobozia has started
♦On the other side, Florin Maxim, compared to the last game, 3-1 at home with CSC Şelimbăr, made x changes in the starting formula. Cristian Blaga, Dorin Pop, Andrei Hergheligiu, Marius Chindriș, Nicolae Pîrvulescu and Lucas Câmpan came out. Stefan Lefter, Antoniu Manolache, Denis Hrezdac, Antonio Bradu, Marius Lupu and Timotei Mitran returned to the first 11.
♦Compared to the last game, 1-0 at FK Miercurea Ciuc, Adrian Mihalcea has only one change in the first 11. Ionuț Dinu returned as a starter after a long period in which he was injured, taking his place in the center of the defense of Gabriel Lazăr. Dinu also took over the captain’s armband from Lazar, the third captain in the group. The first two, Constantin Toma and Florinel Ibrian, are injured. On the bench, the new players are Viorel Gîrbăcea and Raul Iancu, instead of Denis Milotin-Cârciag and Dragoș Lazăr.
Unirea Slobozia secures 1st place in the League 2 play-off with a draw against Corvinu
Unirea Slobozia ticked off the mathematical promotion two matches ago. It is undefeated in four stages, and in the last three, all played away, it won 2-1 at CSC Şelimbăr, 1-0 at CS Mioveni and 1-0 at FK Miercurea Ciuc.
Now it will be in the penultimate scheduled home game this season and with at least one point obtained in front of Corvinu it will be impossible to overcome in the last two stages, so it will secure the 1st place and become the champion of League 2 in 2023- 2024, going to receive the competition trophy, which only Dunărea Călărași (2018), Chindia Târgovişte (2019), UTA Arad (2020), FCU Craiova (2021), Petrolul Ploiești (2022) and Politehnica Iași have had on display. (2023).
In the play-off home games, the team from Ialomi registered two victories, 1-0 with CS Mioveni and 2-0 with FK Miercurea Ciuc, and a draw, 1-1 with Gloria Buzău.
- In the ranking, they occupy the 1st place, since the end of the first stage of the play-off, with 56 points, with a lead of seven points in front of those from Corvinul and CSC Şelimbăr.
Corvinul is playing its last chance to grab the 1st place in the ranking
Corvinul also comes after a series of three matches without defeat in the play-off, after 2-0 at home with CS Mioveni, 2-2 at Gloria Buzău and 3-1 at Hunedoara with CSC Şelimbăr.
The big surprise of this edition of the Romanian Cup, finalist in the competition, is in the last chance to finish in 1st place in the play-off of League 2. For that, he needs a victory today, in Slobozia, a mistake-free course in the other two stages and other wrong steps of the Union. It is hard to believe that this will happen, even if Florin Maxim’s band prevails today. Rather, Corvinul is in a position to evolve because it has to, but also to keep in shape before the final with SC Oțelul Galați, its true stake at the end of the season, given that the tournament is active without being able to promote, because of its form of organization.
In the games played away in the play-off, Corvinul did not win. He has a draw with CSC Șelimbăr (0-0), a defeat at FK Miercurea Ciuc (1-2) and another draw at Gloria Buzău (2-2).
- At the moment, they occupy the 2nd place in the ranking, with 49 points, being tied with CSC Şelimbăr, which they lead on goal difference, 10-6 compared to 6-10.
1-1 in head-to-head matches this season. Iuliana Demetrescu referees Unirea Slobozia – Corvinul
Unirea Slobozia and Corvinul were tied on points for a long time at the end of the regular season, the advance taken by the Ialomiites coming after the direct meeting, which took place in the very last stage. Then, in Slobozia, on March 16, 2024, Unirea won with a score of 3-1 the game against Hunedoren, with the goals scored by Andrei Dorobanțu (57), Laurențiu Vlăsceanu (65), Serges Ekollo (90+4), respectively Viorel Lica (74). In the play-off round, in Hunedoara, on April 10, Corvinul won 1-0, with the goal scored by Antoniu Manolache (14).
Today’s game in Slobozia, scheduled from 12:00, at the 1 Mai stadium, will be refereed from the center by Iuliana Elena Demetrescu (Râmnicu Vâlcea) and from the two assistants Ionuț Traian Neacșu (Bucharest) and Mihaela Șepusa (Buzău). Ana Maria Terteleac (Berceni – Ilfov) is the referee as reserve. The referee observer is Silviu Crângaşu (Ploiesti), and the game delegate is Dorinel Dincă (Călăraşi).
Referee Iuliana Demetrescu is part of the first league team and this season she led from the center ten games in four competitions. In League 2, in the 2023-2024 edition, he also managed the matches Progresul Spartac – Viitorul Pandurii 1-2, CS Tunari – Unirea Dej 0-1, from the regular season, and CSM Alexandria – CFC Argeș 0-2, from the play-out.
